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The  Curriculum 

OF  THE 

Catholic  Elementary  School 


A  DISCUSSION 

OF  ITS  PSYCHOLOGICAL  AND 

SOCIAL  FOUNDATIONS 


BY 

GEORGE  JOHNSON 


A  DISSERTATION 

Submitted  to  the  Faculty  of  Philosophy  of  the  Catholic 

University  of  America  in  Partial  Fulfillment  of 

the   Requirements  for   the   Degree   of 

Doctor  of  Philosophy 


*"<*  i  •  i i l*y\ •*; 


WASHINGTON.  D.  C. 
1919 


XGHANQtt 


CONTENTS 

Introduction    


CHAPTER  I 

The   Development   of  the  Elementaby   School  Cueeiculum 
IN  THE  United  States 

The  Growth  of  the  Curriculum 1 

The  Curriculum  prior  to  1812". 2 

After    1812 5 

Geography  6 

History    7 

Music    S 

Drawing    8 

Physical   Education 9 

Manual    Arts ^ 

Home   Economics 10 

Nature  Study 10 

Efforts  at  Reorganization 12 

The  National  Educational  Association 13 

Local  Systems,  Curricula  and  Surveys 15 

Reorganization  in  the  Catholic  School  System 15 

Need  for  definite  principles  to  govern  the  making  of  curricula 16 

CHAPTER  II 

Subject-Mattee  and  Society — The  Past 

The  School  and  Society 18 

Primitive   Education 18 

The  Origin  of  the  School Ift 

Oriental    Education 20 

The  Greeks 21 

The  Romans 24 

The  Early  Church 25 

The  Middle  Ages 26 

The  Renaissance 27 

The  Protestant  Revolt 29 

The  Catholic  Counter-Reformation 29 

The  Realists 30 

Education  as  Discipline 31 

The   Enlightenment 32 

Rousseau   33 

The  Beginnings  of  Modem  Education 34 

The  Present  Situation — Education  as  Social  Control 36 

iii 


iv  Contents 

CHAPTER  III 

Subject-Matteb  and  Society — The  Present 

The  Industrial  Character  of  Modern  Society 39 

The  Development  of  Modern  Industry 40 

The  Social  and  Economic  Effects  of  the  Industrial  Revolution . .  44 

The  Need   for   Social   Reform 46 

The  Secular  Character  of  the  Modern  Age 48 

The  Social  Program  of  Modern  Education 51 

The  Mission  of  the  Catholic  School  in  an  Industrial  Democracy. .  53 

The  Need  for  Religion 53 

Christian    Social    Reform 54 

Industrial  Education 54 

True  Meaning  of  Adjustment  to  the  Environment 59 

CHAPTER  IV 

Subject-Matteb  and  the  Individual 

The  Individual  and  the  Group 61 

Culture  as  a  Necessary  Aim 62 

The  Doctrine  of  Formal  Discipline 63 

The  Faculty  Hypothesis 64 

Experiments  in  the  Transfer  of  Training 68 

General    Conclusions 72 

The  Nature   of  Culture 76 

Culture  and  Methods 79 

Cultural  Elements  in  the  Lower  Schools 81 

CHAPTER  V 

The  Cubbiculum  of  the  Catholic  Elementaby  School — The   Scope 

The  Elementary  School  and  American  Democracy 83 

The  Canon  of  Equality 83 

Moral    Sanctions 84 

Leadership    85 

The  Limitations  of  the  Child  Mind 86 

The  Formalist  Objection 88 

CHAPTER  VI 

The  Cubbiculum  of  the  Catholic  Elementaby   School— The 
Sub  J  ECT-M  atteb 

Contents 92 

God   92 

Man    93 

Nature    9g 


Contents  ▼ 

Form 97 

The  Child's  Response  or  Conduct 98 

Knowledge    100 

Habits  and  Skills 101 

Attitudes   104 

Interests    105 

Ideals   106 

The  Will 107 

The  Social  Controls  of  Conduct 107 

Religious 108 

Moral    108 

Physical  109 

Social    110 

Economic 112 

Civic   112 

Control   of   Leisure 113 

Conclusion    114 

Bibliography    


J 


INTRODUCTION 

The  curriculum  is  the  fundamental  element  in  a  school  system. 
Upon  it  everything  else,  administration,  supervision,  methods  of 
teaching,  testing,  depends.  It  is  the  concrete  embodiment  of 
the  school's  ideals;  in  it  are  implied  the  changes  the  school  aims  to 
effect  in  the  mind  and  heart  of  the  child  in  order  that  he  may  be 
led  out  of  the  Egyptian  bondage  of  his  native  tendencies  into  the 
Promised  Land  of  his  social  inheritance.  To  it  the  teacher  turns 
for  guidance  and  in  it  finds  a  means  of  avoiding  the  indefinite 
and  haphazard;  it  serves  the  supervisor  as  a  norm  for  judging 
the  quality  of  the  teaching;  it  is  the  basis  of  the  choice  of  text- 
books.    It  is  the  pivot  upon  which  the  entire  system  turns. 

Hence  the  importance  of  discovering  the  principles  that  should 
underlie  the  curriculum  of  our  Catholic  elementary  schools. 
"Without  the  light  of  these  principles,  practical  administration  is 
handicapped  and  must  of  necessity  be  content  with  half -measures. 
A  sound  theory  is  the  most  practical  thing  in  the  world,  and  the 
present  discussion  is  undertaken  with  the  hope  of  at  least  pointing 
the  way  to  such  a  theory. 

The  program  of  the  modern  elementary  school  embraces  a  great 
number  of  topics  that  were  not  found  there  a  generation  ago. 
This  is  not  due  entirely,  as  some  charge,  to  the  fads  of  educational 
theory,  but  largely  to  the  operation  of  social  forces.  The  history  of 
education  reveals  how  the  schools  change  from  age  to  age  to  meet 
the  needs  of  society.  Education  is  preparation  for  life  and  it 
is  but  natural  to  expect  that  the  conditions  of  life  at  any  given  time 
should  influence  educational  agencies.  However,  the  school 
tends  to  lag  behind  in  the  march  of  progress.  It  becomes  formal, 
canonizing  subject-matter  and  methods  that  have  proven  valid  in 
the  past  and  according  only  tardy  recognition  to  innovations. 
Modern  educational  philosophy,  in  the  light  of  the  development 
of  social  science,  would  overcome  this  inertia  and  adopt  a  more 
forward-looking  policy.  The  school  is  to  be  regarded  as  a  means 
of  social  control.  It  shall  represent  the  ideal  in  social  conditions 
and  imbue  the  child  with  an  intelligent  discontent  with  anything 
short  of  this  in  actual  life.  This  development  of  educational 
thought  is  of  the  deepest  importance  for  the  Catholic  school.  It 
means  that  Catholic  education  must  work  out  a  practical  social 
philosophy  of  its  own,  and  not  be  satisfied  to  follow  where  blind 
guides  may  lead. 

vii 


viii  Introduction 

An  analysis  of  the  present  condition  of  society  reveals  the 
existence  of  three  major  phenomena.  First,  the  prime  charac- 
teristic of  present-day  civilization  is  industrialism.  The  last  cen- 
tury has  witnessed  developments  in  industrial  processes  that  have 
completely  revolutionized  the  conditions  of  living.  The  coming  of 
the  machine  has  changed  the  face  of  the  earth.  It  has  affected 
every  phase  of  human  life  and  has  introduced  problems  of  the 
deepest  import.  Since  in  the  development  of  the  mechanical 
processes  there  was  a  tendency  to  lose  sight  of  the  deeper  human 
values,  great  evils  have  arisen  in  the  social  order,  and  these  have 
fostered  the  second  phenomenon,  namely,  the  universal  discontent 
with  present  conditions  and  the  zeal  for  social  reform.  Because 
industrialism  tends  to  beget  materialism  and  because  the  philoso- 
phy of  the  last  400  years  has  tended  to  irreligion,  this  reform  is 
being  sought  by  measures  that  are  purely  secular  and  humanitarian. 
Religion  as  a  force  for  human  betterment  receives  but  scant  con- 
sideration from  modern  social  science;  it  may  be  a  contributory 
factor,  but  its  importance  is  but  secondary. 

The  Catholic  school  must  meet  this  condition  by  insisting  always 
on  the  essential  need  of  religion,  by  applying  the  force  of  religion 
to  social  problems  and  by  taking  cognizance  of  the  great  fact  of 
industry.  In  other  words  it  must  adjust  the  child  to  the  present 
environment  and  interpret  unto  him  the  Doctrine  of  Christ  in 
such  manner  that  he  will  understand  its  bearing  on  his  everyday 
problems  and  realize  that  in  it  alone  can  be  found  the  means  of 
salvation,  temporal  as  well  as  eternal. 

However,  in  striving  to  make  the  school  meet  present  needs, 
there  is  danger  of  becoming  too  practical  and  utilitarian.  Secular 
education  is  prone  to  despise  cultural  values.  In  its  zeal  to  stamp 
out  individualism,  the  modern  school  bids  fair  to  destroy  the 
individual.  The  doctrine  of  formal  discipline  is  being  generally 
scouted  and  the  cry  is  for  specific  education.  Yet,  an  examination 
of  the  psychological  arguments  that  are  alleged  against  the 
doctrine  and  of  the  experiments  that  have  been  made  in  relation 
to  the  transfer  of  training,  seems  to  indicate  that  conclusions  have 
been  too  hasty.  Though  the  effects  of  formal  discipline  have  been 
exaggerated  in  the  past,  the  fact  has  yet  to  be  conclusively  dis- 
proven.  Culture,  or  the  building  up  of  individual  character,  is 
best  accomplished  by  means  of  general  and  not  specific  training, 
though  the  influence  of  practical,  every-day  forces  should  not  be 
despised  in  the  process. 


Introdicction  ix 

There  is  no  room  in  the  present  system  of  things  for  a  program 
of  elementary  education  that  is  narrowly  conceived  for  the  benefit 
of  those  who  will  receive  a  higher  schooling.  The  elementary 
school  has  an  independent  mission  of  its  own.  Its  aim  should  be 
to  give  all  the  children  that  enter  its  doors  a  real  education.  This 
does  not  mean  that  it  should  attempt  to  teach  all  that  a  higher 
school  would  teach,  but,  with  due  regard  for  the  limitations  of  the 
child's  mind,  it  should  offer  him  such  fundamental  knowledge  of 
God,  of  man  and  of  nature,  as  will  afford  the  basis  of  a  character 
capable  of  the  best  religious,  moral  and  social  conduct. 

It  is  along  these  lines  that  the  present  study  is  conducted. 
Specific  applications  to  the  individual  branches  are  beyond 
its  scope,  nor  does  it  attempt  to  work  out  a  system  of  correlation 
of  studies.  These  are  practical  conclusions  that  can  be  deduced 
from  the  general  principles  set  forth.  The  aim  is  to  discover  a 
working  basis  for  the  making  of  the  curriculum  for  the  Catholic 
elementary  school,  that  it  may  be  in  a  better  position  to  accomplish 
its  mission  in  the  midst  of  modern  conditions  and  be  freed  from 
the  tyranny  of  objectives  that  are  immediate  and  merely  con- 
jectural. 


CHAPTER  I 

THE  DEVELOPMENT  OF  THE   ELEMENTARY  SCHOOL  CURRICULUM   IN 

THE   UNITED   STATES 

One  of  the  favorite  criticisms  directed  against  American  ele- 
mentary education  is  that  in  attempting  to  do  everything,  it  suc- 
ceeds in  doing  nothing.  University  professors,  business  men,  law- 
yers, doctors  and  even  some  teachers  vie  with  one  another  in 
lauding  the  good  old  days  of  the  three  R*s  and  in  decrying  the 
faddism  that  has  loaded  the  curriculum  of  the  elementary  school 
with  an  astounding  amount  of  material  that  does  not  belong  there. 
They  tell  us  that  the  modern  child  upon  completing  his  schooling  is 
scatter-brained  and  inexact;  that  he  is  poor  in  spelling  and  quite 
helpless  in  the  face  of  the  simplest  problem  in  arithmetic.  This 
they  ascribe  to  the  fact  that  instead  of  being  trained  in  the  school 
arts,  he  is  forced  to  listen  to  a  great  number  of  superficial  facts 
concerning  nature,  the  care  of  his  body,  the  history  of  Europe; 
that  instead  of  being  exercised  in  steady  and  sustained  effort,  he  is 
entertained  and  amused  by  drawing,  music,  manual  training  and 
industrial  arts.  The  schools,  they  tell  us  are  defeating  their  pur- 
pose by  attempting  things  that  are  beyond  their  scope. 

It  might  be  interesting  to  make  a  study  of  the  alleged  basis  of 
this  criticism,  namely,  the  inefficiency  of  the  average  graduate  of 
the  elementary  school,  and  to  discover  whether  it  has  any  sub- 
stance or  is  just  an  easy  generalization  from  isolated  instances.  Yet 
whatever  might  be  the  result,  it  would  not  argue  in  the  direction 
pointed  by  the  critics.  We  cannot  return  to  the  old  formal  curricu- 
lum, for  the  simple  reason  that  such  a  curriculum  would  be  utterly 
inadequate  under  present  conditions.  The  mission  of  the  ele- 
mentary school  is  not  mere  training  in  the  use  of  the  tools  of 
learning.  The  elementary  school  period  is  the  season  of  planting, 
of  germination,  of  development.  It  is  a  season  of  gradual  awaken- 
ing, during  which  the  mind  of  the  child  becomes  more  and  more 
cognizant  of  the  life  that  surrounds  it.  It  is  a  season  of  prepara- 
tion for  life,  and  the  more  complex  life  is,  the  more  detailed  must 
be  the  preparation.  The  educational  thought  of  the  day  goes 
even  further  and  maintains  that  the  school  is  more  than  a  prepara- 
tion for  life,  that  it  is  life  itself,  and  must  of  a  consequence  in- 
clude all  of  life's  elements,  at  least  in  germ.     It  must  touch  all  of 

1 


2     ^^^^^^^urrieuidm.hj  the  Catholic  Elementary  School 

life's  essential  interests  and  must  prepare  for  those  eventualities 
that  every  individual  must  meet.  If  the  modern  curriculum  is 
varied  beyond  the  dreams  of  an  older  generation,  if  it  refuses  to 
confine  itself  to  the  three  R's,  it  is  not  because  arbitrary  fad  holds 
the  rein,  but  because  conditions  of  life  have  changed  and  in 
changing  have  placed  a  greater  responsibility  upon  the  lower 
schools.  The  history  of  education  in  the  United  States  shows  how 
one  study  after  another  has  been  admitted  into  the  schools  under 
an  impulse  that  came,  not  from  some  pedagogue  with  a  fad  to 
nurse,  but  from  the  recognition  of  very  evident  social  needs. 

The  school  prqig-ram  of  Colonial  days  was  a  very  jejune  affair. 
Only  the  rudiments  of  reading  and  writing  were  imparted  in  the 
Puritan  schools  of  New  England,  and  very  little  more  elsewhere 
through  the  colonies.  Those  were  pioneer  days,  days  of  hardship 
and  danger  when  men  labored  hard  and  found  little  time  for  the 
refinements  of  life.  There  was  a  new  country  to  be  reclaimed, 
hostile  savages  to  be  warded  off,  an  urgent  need  for  food,  clothing 
and  shelter  to  be  satisfied.  Yet  some  learning  was  requisite  even 
in  those  hard  circumstances.  First  of  all,  religion  played  a  promi- 
nent role  in  the  lives  of  the  colonists.  In  Europe,  the  religious  con- 
troversy subsequent  to  the  Protestant  Revolt  waxed  ever  warmer 
through  the  seventeenth  century  and  reflected  itself  in  colonial 
life.  For  the  most  part,  the  colonists  were  refugees  from  religious 
persecution  or  from  circumstances  that  interfered  with  the  free 
following  of  the  dictates  of  conscience.  They  brought  with  them, 
whether  they  were  the  Catholics  of  Maryland,  the  Quakers  of 
Pennsylvania  or  the  Puritans  of  New  England,  strong  religious  pre- 
judices and  preoccupations.  1  There  were  religious  books,  tracts 
and  pamphlets  to  be  read;  hence  the  necessity  of  learning  to  read. 
As  early  as  1642,  a  Massachusetts  enactment  gave  selectmen  the 
power  to  investigate  as  to  the  education  of  children  and  to  im- 
pose fines  on  parents  who  refused  to  provide  schooling.^  Under 
this  law,  the  duty  of  educating  their  children  devolved  upon  the 
parents;  teachers  where  they  could  be  found,  were  more  or  less  on  a 
level  with  itinerant  journeymen.  In  1674,  a  law  was  passed  requir- 
ing the  towns  to  maintain  schools.  The  preamble  states  ex- 
plicitly the  reason  of  the  law: — "it  being  one  chief  point  of  the  old 


^  Parker,  Samuel  Chester,    The  History  of  Modern  Elementary    Education, 
Boston,  1912,  p.  67. 
»  Ibid.,  p.  59. 


Discussion  of  Psychological  and  Social  Foundations      3 

deluder  Satan,  to  keep  men  from  a  knowledge  of  the  Scriptures.**' 
Reading  texts  were  of  a  religious  character,  as  for  example,  the 
horn  book  and  the  primer;  the  catechism  which  concluded  the 
primer  was  considered  of  prime  importance.  The  chief  aim  was 
to  give  the  children  such  training  in  reading  as  would  enable  them 
to  read  the  Bible  and  follow  the  lines  of  religious  controversy. 

The  legal  and  commercial  status  of  the  colonies  likewise  necessi- 
tated ability  to  read,  as  well  as  some  skill  in  writing.  From  the 
very  beginning,  some  sort  of  legal  code  was  demanded,  to  make  for 
solidarity  and  protect  the  group  from  external  encroachment  and 
unscrupulousness  within.  Legal  documents  must  be  drawn  up, 
must  be  scrutinized  and  understood.  The  transfer  of  property 
must  be  safe-guarded.  Moreoever  there  was  an  increase  in  com- 
mercial activity,  in  barter  between  the  colonies  and  trade  with  the 
mother  country.'*  These  facts  operated  particularly  in  favor  of 
WTiting,  which  lacked  a  universal  religious  sanction.  In  the 
beginning,  these  phases  of  instruction  were  separated.^  There 
were  so  many  different  styles  of  penmanship  that  the  teaching  of 
it  called  for  considerable  skill,  and  it  was  exceedingly  diflBcult  to 
find  a  good  master.*  Out  of  this  condition  developed  the  "double- 
headed  system"  of  reading  and  writing  schools.^ 

The  Catholic  schools  of  the  period  followed  pretty  well  the 
course  described  above.  The  mission  schools  made  more  provi- 
sion for  industrial  education,  as  we  see  from  the  records  of  the 
missions  of  New  Mexico,  Texas  and  California.*  But  for  the 
rest,  outside  of  instruction  in  the  catechism  and  bible  history,  the 
Catholic  schools  differed  little  from  the  others. 

It  was  only  well  into  the  eighteenth  century  that  spelling, 
grammar  and  arithmetic  came  into  their  own  as  school  subjects.' 
Parker  sums  up  the  situation  in  the  following  words;  "The  curricu- 

» Ibid.,  p.  60. 

*  Carlton,  Frank  Tracy,  Education  and  Industrial  Evolution.  New  York, 
1908,  p.  21. 

'  Parker,  Samuel  Chester,  The  History  of  Modern  Elementary  Education, 
p.  86. 

•Jessup,  W.  A.,  The  Social  Factors  Affecting  Special  Supervision  in  the 
Public  Schools  of  the  United  States.  New  York  (Columbia  University  Publica- 
tion), 1911,  p.  78. 

'  Parker,  Samuel  Chester,  The  History  of  Modern  Elementary  Education, 
p.  86. 

'  Burns,  J.  A.,  The  Principles,  Origin  and  Establishment  of  the  Catholic 
School  System  in  the  United  States.     New  York,  1912,  pp.  42,  47,  52,  58. 

•  Bunker,  Frank  Forest,  Reorganization  of  the  Public  School  System.  United 
United  States  Bureau  of  Education  Bulletin,  1916,  No.  8,  p.  3. 


4        The  Curriculum  of  the  Catholic  Elementary  School 

lum  of  the  American  elementary  school  down  to  the  American 
Revolution  included  reading  and  writing  as  the  fundamental  sub- 
jects, with  perhaps  a  little  arithmetic  for  the  more  favored  schools. 
Spelling  was  emphasized  toward  the  end  of  the  period.  The 
subjects  that  had  no  place  were  composition,  singing,  drawing 
object  study,  physiology,  nature  study,  geography,  history,  secular 
literature,  manual  training.*'^^ 

In  1789,  arithmetic  assumed  an  official  place  in  the  curriculum. 
European  educational  tradition  of  the  seventeenth  century  did  not 
consider  arithmetic  essential  to  a  boy's  education  unless  he  was 
"less  capable  of  learning  and  fittest  to  put  to  the  trades."  To  the 
subject  attached  all  the  odium  which  in  those  days  was  suggested  by 
practical  training.  The  minds  of  the  colonists  were  colored  by  this 
tradition.  Of  course,  settlers  like  the  Dutch  of  New  York,  who  were 
come  of  a  commercial  nation,  and  who  sought  these  shores  in  the 
interest  of  commercial  enterprise,  could  not  afford  to  neglect 
arithmetics^  Even  here  and  there  throughout  New  England, 
arithmetic  was  taught,  though  there  is  little  specific  mention  of  it 
in  the  records.  It  was  sometimes  part  of  the  program  in  the 
writing  schools.  In  1635,  a  school  was  established  at  Plymouth, 
in  which  a  Mr.  Morton  taught  children  to  "read,  write  and  cast 
accounts. "s^  Arithmetic  was  not  required  for  college  entrance 
before  the  middle  of  the  eighteenth  century.  There  is  mention  of 
it  at  times  in  teacher's  contracts,  coordinately  with  reading  and 
writing.  In  1789,  the  teaching  of  reading,  writing  and  arithmetic 
was  made  compulsory  in  both  Massachusetts  and  New  Hampshire. 
It  is  not  unreasonable  to  suppose  that  these  laws  represent  the 
legalizing  of  a  practice  already  more  or  less  prevalent. 

The  principal  aim  of  the  teaching  of  arithmetic  in  the  colonial 
schools  seems  to  have  been  the  satisfying  of  the  needs  of  trade  and 
commerce.  Authors  of  the  texts  used  made  this  very  explicit. 
James  Hodder  is  induced  to  publish  "this  small  treatise  in  Arith- 
metik  for  the  compleating  of  youths  as  to  clerkship  and  trades" 
(1661).  The  title  page  of  Greenwood's  arithmetic,  published  in 
1729,  reads  "Arithmetik,  Vulgar  and  Decimal,  with  the  Appli- 
cation thereof  to  a  Variety  of  Cases  in  Trade  and  Commerce."     A 


^°  Parker,  Samuel  Chester,  The  History  of  Modern  Elementary  Education, 
p.  84. 

^^  Monroe,  W.  S.,  Development  of  Arithmetic  as  a  School  Subject,  United 
States  Bureau  of  Education  Bulletin,  1917,  No.  10,  p.  7. 

"  Ibid.,  p.  9. 


Discussion  of  Psychological  and  Social  Foundations      5 

ciphering  book  prepared  in  Boston  in  1809,  bears  the  title,  "Prac- 
tical Arithmetic,  comprising  all  the  rules  necessary  for  transacting 
business."^^  After  the  Revolution,  when  the  colonies  had  been 
welded  together  into  a  nation  and  a  national  currency  was  esta- 
blished, the  need  for  skill  in  arithmetic  was  everywhere  recognized, 
and  thenceforth  the  subject  developed  steadily. 

With  the  close  of  the  War  of  1812,  there  began  a  new  era  in  the 
social,  economic  and  industrial  life  of  our  country.  The  war  had 
demonstrated  that  the  new  nation  could  not  perdure  unless  it 
developed  strong  and  vigorous  institutions  of  its  own.  It  had 
achieved  complete  independence  of  any  foreign  domination;  it 
must  now  prove  itself  self-dependent.  The  result  was  a  marvel- 
ous commercial  and  industrial  evolution.  Only  shortly  before,  the 
machine  had  revolutionized  European  industry;  it  now  made  its 
appearance  in  America.  Immediately  there  was  a  shift  from  an 
agrarian  to  an  industrial  basis.  Large  cities  grew  up  and  special- 
ized labor  was  introduced.  Hand  in  hand  with  the  benefits  that 
attended  this  change,  came  the  host  of  evils  already  prevalent  in 
Europe — poverty  and  unemployment,  poor  housing  and  unsanitary 
living,  insecurity  of  finance  and  exploitation  of  labor. 

The  reflex  of  these  conditions  at  once  became  evident  in  the 
schools.  Everywhere  it  was  the  sense  of  thinking  men  that  in 
education  rested  the  hope  of  American  institutions.  There  came  a 
demand  for  free,  centralized  American  schools.  The  authority  of 
religious  bodies  in  matters  educational  was  gradually  under- 
mined. Over  in  Europe,  the  churches  had  already  lost  their  hold 
upon  the  schools  and  strong  state  systems  were  growing  up.  Edu- 
cation was  assuming  a  secular  aspect  and  at  the  same  time  coming 
to  play  a  more  comprehensive  role  in  human  life.  A  great  body  of 
educational  doctrine  appeared,  based  on  the  thought  of  men  like 
Locke,  Comenius  and  Rousseau.  There  was  a  reaction  against 
the  exclusiveness  and  formalism  of  the  classical  education  and  a 
demand  for  schooling  that  would  be  more  according  to  nature  and 
the  exigencies  of  the  age. 

After  the  hard  times  of  1819-1821,  there  was  an  insistent  de- 
mand for  schools  supported  by  public  tax.  This  demand  was 
voiced  by  the  labor  unions  and  the  great  humanitarian  movements 
of  the  time.     Education  must  forever  remain  inadequate,  unless  it 


"  Ibid.,  p.  15. 


6        The  Curriculum  of  the  Catholic  Elementary  School 

be  transferred  from  a  charity  to  a  rate  basis.^*  When  religious 
control  went  by  the  board,  the  teaching  of  religion  went  with  it; 
not  that  schoolmen  like  Horace  Mann  did  not  consider  religion  a 
matter  of  vital  importance  to  the  life  of  the  nation,  but  because 
they  deemed  it  outside  the  scope  of  the  school,  which  to  their 
thinking  was  a  secular  enterprise.  The  teaching  of  religion  could 
well  be  left  to  the  churches. ^^ 

During  this  period  great  changes  were  made  in  the  curriculum. 
The  work  of  the  Prussian  schools  was  studied  by  Stowe,  Barnard 
and  Manu,  and  they  inaugurated  reforms  in  line  with  their  observa- 
tions. The  school  must  be  brought  closer  to  life.  These  leaders 
echoed  the  teaching  of  Rousseau  and  Pestalozzi,  and  in  answer 
there  came  changes  in  administration,  method  and  subject-matter. 
In  1826,  geography  became  a  required  study.  There  had  been 
little,  if  any,  geography  in  the  early  schools,  for  the  interests  of  the 
previous  generation  had  been  local  and  circumscribed.  But  the 
great  territorial  changes  that  took  place  from  1789-1826,  the 
purchase  of  Florida  and  Louisiana,  the  opening  up  of  the  Rockies 
after  the  Lewis  and  Clarke  expedition,  and  the  settlement  of  the 
Great  Northwest,  stimulated  interest  in  the  geography  of  this 
continent.  Moreover,  after  the  War  of  1812,  our  foreign  com- 
merce began  to  develop,  the  Monroe  Doctrine  was  formulated 
and  as  a  consequence  there  was  need  for  a  more  comprehensive 
knowledge  of  the  lands  beyond  the  seas,  of  South  America  and  the 
Far  East.  The  principal  countries  of  the  world,  their  character- 
istics and  the  condition  of  their  inhabitants  must  become  matters 
of  common  knowledge,  not  for  reasons  of  mere  curiosity,  but 
because  these  things  affected  our  own  national  life.^* 

Stimulus  had  been  given  to  the  study  of  geography  by  Comenius, 
who  would  have  children  in  the  vernacular  schools  learn  "the 
important  facts  of  cosmography,  in  particular  the  cities,  moun- 
tains, rivers  and  other  remarkable  features  of  their  own  coun- 
try. *'^^  Rousseau  advocated  geography  as  a  necessary  part  of 
science  instruction.^^  To  Pestalozzi  belongs  the  credit  of  inaugu- 
rating the  beginnings  of  modern  geography.  Prior  to  his  time,  geo- 
graphy had  been  of  a  dictionary-encyclopedic  type.     The  geogra- 


"  Carlton,  Frank  Tr&cy,  Education  and  Industrial  Evolution,  p.  28. 
"  Shields,  Thomas  Edward,  Philosophy  of  Education.     Washington,  D.  C, 
1917,  p.  405. 
"  Boston  Board  of  Supervisors.     School  Document,  No.  3,  1900. 
"  Comenius,  John  Amos,  School  of  Infancy,  Vol.  VI,  6,  p.  34. 
^^  Rousseau,  J.  J.  Entile.     Applelon  Edition,  p.  142. 


Discussion  of  Psychological  and  Social  Foundations      7 

phy  of  Morse,  published  in  1789,  contained  a  great  mass  of  infor- 
mation such  as  is  generally  found  in  encyclopedias;  the  Peter 
Parley  books  were  the  same  in  content,  though  they  were  so 
arranged  as  to  be  interesting  to  children. ^^ 

It  was  Carl  Ritter  (1779-1859)  who  revolutionized  the  teaching 
of  geography.  He  learned  geography  from  Pestalozzi  and  was 
imbued  with  Pestalozzian  principles.  He  developed  the  principle 
that  geography  is  the  study  of  the  earth  in  its  relation  to  man  and 
insisted  upon  home  geography  as  the  proper  method  of  intro- 
ducing the  child  to  his  natural  environment.  This  type  of  geogra- 
phy was  fostered  in  the  American  schools  by  Col.  Parker  (1837- 
1902)  .20 

History  began  to  find  favor  as  a  branch  of  elementary  educa- 
tion about  1815.  Before  that  time  it  was  taught  incidentally  to 
geography  and  literature.  However  when  the  generation  of  the 
Revolution  began  to  disappear  and  the  memory  of  olden  days  grew 
dim,  there  came  an  interest  in  the  vanishing  past  of  the  country. 
Moreover  great  numbers  of  strangers  were  coming  to  these  shores 
in  search  of  a  new  home.  If  these  immigrants  were  to  take  a  real 
part  in  the  life  of  the  nation  and  contribute  to  the  perpetuation  of 
the  ideals  for  which  the  fathers  had  so  nobly  striven,  they  must 
have  a  knowledge  of  the  trying  times  that  were  gone  and  of  the 
circumstances  which  had  inspired  American  principles.  In  1827, 
Massachusetts  made  history  mandatory  as  a  branch  of  the  curricu- 
lum "in  every  city,  town  or  district  of  500  families  or  householders.** 
New  York  soon  followed  the  example  and  it  was  particularly  well 
received  by  the  newer  states.'^^ 

The  history  taught  in  the  beginning  was  the  history  of  the 
United  States.  In  1835,  the  Superintendent  of  Schools  in  New 
York  said,  "The  history  of  foreign  countries,  however  desirable  it 
may  be,  cannot  ordinarily  enter  into  a  system  of  common  school 
education  without  opening  too  wide  a  field.  It  is  safer  in  general 
to  treat  it  as  a  superfluity  and  leave  it  to  such  as  have  leisure  in 
after  life."  It  is  interesting  to  note  the  change  in  modern  educa- 
tional thought,  according  to  which  it  is  impossible  to  give  an  ade- 

"  Parker,  Samuel  Chester,  The  History  of  Modern  Elementary  Education, 
p.  841. 

^'^Ibid.,  pp.  343-349. 

"  The  influence  of  the  doctrines  of  Spencer  and  Herbart  had  much  to  do 
with  the  fostering  of  historical  instruction  in  the  schools.  The  former  advo- 
cated it  as  descriptive  sociology  and  the  latter  regarded  it  as  the  source  of 
social  and  sympathetic  interest  and  as  of  primary  moral  value. 


8        The  Curriculum  of  the  Catholw  Elementary  School 

quale  idea  of  American  History,  without  first  treating  in  some 
fashion,  its  background  in  Europe.^ 

The  anti-slavery  agitation  preceding  the  Civil  War  also  provoked 
great  interest  in  history,  both  sides  of  the  controversy  looking  to 
the  past  for  a  substantiation  of  their  claims. ^^ 

The  introduction  of  music  was  due  to  influences  other  than  peda- 
gogical. The  Puritans  had  looked  askance  at  music  as  being 
frivolous  and  worldly;  there  was  none  of  it  in  the  schools  which 
they  dominated.  Around  1800,  popular  interest  in  music  began 
to  grow  and  singing  societies  were  formed  in  different  centers.  In 
1830,  William  C.  Woodbridge  delivered  a  lecture  on  "Vocal 
Education  as  a  Branch  of  Common  Instruction,"  and  in  1836, 
Lowell  Mason  of  the  Boston  Academy  of  Music  succeeded  in 
persuading  the  Select  School  Committee  of  Boston  to  adopt  a 
memorial  in  favor  of  music.  In  1837,  the  board  resolved  to  try  the 
experiment  and  in  1838,  appointed  Mason,  supervisor  of  Music  for 
the  Boston  schools.  Other  states  followed  this  lead  and  music 
gradually  became  part  of  elementary  education.^'* 

There  were  precedents  from  Europe  to  help  the  cause.  Music 
was  an  integral  part  of  German  education  and  men  like  Barnard 
and  Mann  were  indefatigable  in  its  defense.  German  immigrants 
brought  with  them  a  love  of  song  and  the  great  singing  societies 
were  in  vogue.  The  schools,  at  first  loath  to  admit  the  branch, 
finally  accepted  it  for  its  disciplinary  value.  ^^ 

Naturally,  because  of  the  circumstances  of  pioneer  life,  the  colo- 
nists would  have  little  interest  in  drawing.  Franklin  noted  its 
economic  importance  and  included  it  with  writing  and  arithmetic. 
Over  a  century  elapsed  before  popular  interest  was  awakened. ^^ 
The  First  International  Exposition  in  1851,  by  demonstrating  the 
inferior  quality  of  English  workmanship,  when  compared  with  con- 
tinental, convinced  the  manufacturing  interests  of  the  importance 
of  drawing;  for  drawing  was  taught  on  the  continent  but  not  in 
England.  Influence  was  brought  to  bear  on  the  Massachusetts 
legislature  in  1860,  to  make  drawing  a  permissive  study.^^ 

22  Johnson,  Henry,  The  Teaching  of  History.     New  York,  1916,  pp.  127-130. 

23  Boston  Board  of  Supervisors.     School  Document  No.  3,  1900. 

2*  Jessup,  W.  A.,  The  Social  Factors  Affecting  Special  Supervision  in  the 
Public  Schools  of  the  United  States,  p.  38. 

2^  Hagar,  Daniel  B.  National  Educational  Association  Proceedings,  1885, 
p.  17. 

2*  Jessup,  W.  A.,  The  Social  Factors  Affecting  Special  Supervision  in  the 
Public  Schools  of  the  United  States,  p.  20. 

27  Ibid.,  p.  21. 


Discussion  of  Psychological  and  Social  Foundations      9 

The  French  Exposition  of  1867  showed  how  English  workman- 
ship had  improved  with  the  introduction  of  drawing  into  the 
EngHsh  schools.  The  result  was  that  in  1870,  the  Massachusetts 
legislature  passed  a  law  making  drawing  mandatory  in  the  schools. 
Pennsylvania,  Ohio  and  California  made  similar  laws  at  the  time 
and  other  states  soon  fell  into  line.^* 

Popular  interest  in  Physical  Education  is  of  comparatively  recent 
date.  Men  who  worked  the  live  long  day  in  the  clearings  would 
scarcely  see  the  need  of  any  artificial  exercise.  But  when  the 
industrial  changes  of  the  early  nineteenth  century  came  and  urban 
life  developed,  the  necessity  for  some  sort  of  physical  training  be- 
came more  and  more  apparent.  The  example  of  the  German, 
schools  was  noted.  The  German  Turners  came  with  their  gym- 
nastics and  the  Fellenberg  movement  preached  its  doctrine  of 
exercise.  The  appeal  of  the  latter  was  broader  and  met  with 
greater  sympathy,  for  exercise  does  not  require  the  same  output 
of  energy  nor  necessitate  the  same  training  as  gymnastics.  The 
movement  received  great  impetus  from  the  development  of  phy- 
siology and  hygiene  about  1850.  There  was  a  decline  of  interest 
with  the  Civil  War,  but  in  the  80's  the  popularity  of  the  subject 
was  revived,  largely  through  the  influence  of  such  organizations  as 
the  North  American  Gymnastic  Union,  the  Y.  M.  C.  A.  and  the 
American  Association  for  the  Advancement  of  Physical  Educa- 
tion." 

After  the  Civil  War,  there  came  a  greater  appreciation  of  the 
relations  of  the  school  with  industry.  The  new  industrial  condi- 
tions afforded  very  little  training  for  hand  and  eye.  The  special- 
ization that  was  so  general,  did  little  to  develop  manual  skill. 
Business  and  industry  became  interested  in  the  possibility  of 
manual  training  in  the  schools. 

The  Centennial  of  1876,  at  Philadelphia,  displayed  the  work  of 
Sweden  and  Russia  to  such  good  advantage,  that  there  was  at 
once  inspired  a  movement  to  incorporate  their  methods  of  manual 
training  into  the  American  schools.  In  1879,  the  St.  Louis  Manual 
Training  School  was  opened  under  the  direction  of  C.  N.  Wood- 
ward. In  1884,  Baltimore  opened  the  first  manual  training  school 
supported  by  public  funds.     Industrial  institutions  adopted  the 

"  Ibid.,  p.  23. 
"  Ibid.,  p.  64. 


10      The  Curriculum  of  the  Catholic  Elementary  School 

Pellenberg  plan.  All  of  these  were  secondary  schools.  In  1887, 
manual  training  was  introduced  into  the  public  schools  of  New 
York. 

The  schools  opposed  the  movement  on  the  ground  that  it  was  not 
fostered  by  the  people,  but  by  "a  class  of  self -constituted  philan- 
thropists who  are  intent  on  providing  for  the  masses  an  education 
that  will  fit  them  for  their  sphere."^®  However,  the  Froebelians 
favored  the  movement,  for  manual  training  offered  a  splendid 
means  of  expression.  Gradually  the  philanthropic  basis  gave  way 
to  an  intellectual  one.  Murray  Butler  said  in  1888,  "It  is  inter- 
esting to  note  that  an  organization  founded  as  a  philanthropic 
enterprise  has  become  a  great  educational  force  and  has  changed 
its  platform  of  humanitarianism  to  one  of  purely  educational 
reform  and  advancement."^^ 

The  changing  economic  and  social  conditions  of  the  last  cen- 
tury were  accompanied  by  drastic  changes  in  home  life.  Home 
industry  disappeared  and  even  the  home  arts  suffered  when 
women  took  their  places  in  the  ranks  of  the  wage-earners.  The 
school  must  supplement  home  training.  Skilful  agitation  resulted 
in  the  introduction  of  sewing  and  cooking  for  girls,  and  though 
there  was  a  great  cry  of  "fad,"  there  were  so  many  unanswerable 
arguments  from  actual  conditions,  that  the  success  of  the  movement 
was  assured,  and  today,  the  place  of  the  domestic  arts  in  the  curricu- 
lum is  being  gradually  conceded.^^ 

It  was  the  conviction  of  schoolmen  rather  than  outside  pressure, 
that  made  Nature  Study  a  part  of  the  curriculum.  The  Oswego 
schools,  which  represented  the  first  considerable  introduction  of 
Pestalozzianism  into  the  United  States,^^  systematized  object 
teaching  and  developed  a  course  in  elementary  science.  Superin- 
tendent Harris  furthered  the  movement  in  the  schools  of  St.  Louis 
and  arranged  a  very  highly  organized  and  logically  planned  course.^* 
In  1905,  the  Nature  Study  Review  was  founded.  This  publication, 
edited  by  trained  scientists  gave  a  new  turn  to  the  movement. 


30  Clark,  J.  E.,  Art  and  Industry.  United  States  Bureau  of  Education, 
1885-89,  Vol.  II,  p.  917. 

3^  Jessup,  W.  A.,  The  Social  Factors  Affecting  Special  Supervision  in  the 
Public  Schools  of  the  United  States,  p.  32. 

32  Ibid.,  p.  35. 

33  Parker,  Samuel  Chester,  The  History  of  Modern  Elementary  Education, 
p.  330. 

34  Ibid.,  pp.  333-334. 


Discussion  of  Psychological  and  Social  Foundations    11 

Science  may  be  defined  as  completely  organized  knowledge,  but 
knowledge  completely  organized  cannot  be  given  to  children. 
This  was  the  fault  with  Dr.  Harris'  course.  Children  should 
learn  a  great  number  of  intimate  things  about  nature  and  their 
information  should  be  based  on  nature  and  not  simply  conned  by 
rote.  Later  on  as  students  in  higher  schools  they  may  make 
the  detailed  analysis  and  classification  of  their  knowledge  which 
is  necessary  for  the  discovery  of  underlying  general  laws.  This 
is  natural  science  in  the  real  sense  of  the  word,  but  it  is  unsuited 
to  the  elementary  school,  where  not  science  but  the  study  of  nature 
is  in  order.  Nature  Study  aims  at  giving  **the  first  training  in 
accurate  observation  as  a  means  of  gaining  knowledge  direct  from 
nature  and  also  in  the  simplest  comparing,  classifying  and  judging 
values  of  facts ;  in  other  words  to  give  the  first  training  in  the  sim- 
plest processes  of  the  scientific  method. "^^ 

Of  course  there  are  practical  reasons  for  teaching  Nature  Study 
in  the  schools.  Pestalozzi  advocated  observation  and  object 
teaching  for  the  purpose  of  sharpening  perception.  But  over  and 
above  this,  the  knowledge  of  nature  and  the  awakening  of  interest 
in  natural  science  have  a  social  value.  No  man  who  is  ignorant 
of  the  rudiments  of  science  can  claim  to  be  educated  today.  Her- 
bert Spencer's  essay,  '*What  Knowledge  Is  Most  Worth,"  had  a 
tremendous  influence  in  this  country,  though  it  was  intended 
primarily  as  an  attack  on  the  strongly  intrenched  classicism  of 
the  English  secondary  schools,  and  it  went  far  toward  bringing 
about  the  introduction  of  science  into  the  elementary  schools.'® 

Reading  and  literature  offer  another  argument  in  favor  of 
Nature  Study.  The  shift  of  the  population  from  the  country  to 
the  city  and  the  universal  preoccupation  with  the  problems  of 
urban  life,  has  resulted  in  the  appearance  of  a  generation  that  is 
stranger  to  the  charm  of  wood  and  field,  to  whose  mind  birds  and 
flowers  are  objects  of  indifferent  interest.  Naturally,  when  these 
children  meet  with  allusions  to  nature  in  literature,  they  miss  the 
real  meaning  and  only  too  often  read  empty  words.  Dr.  G.  Stan- 
ley Hall,  in  an  investigation  of  the  content  of  children's  minds, 
found  a  surprising  ignorance  of  some  very  commonplace  objects 


"  Quoted  from  the  Nature  Study  Review.  By  Parker,  Samuel  Chester, 
"The  History  of  Modern  Elementary  Education,"  p.  340. 

^  Parker,  Samuel  Chester,  The  History  of  Modern  Elementary  Education, 
p.  338. 


12      The  Curriculum  of  the  Catholic  Elementary  School 

among  Boston  children. ^^  These  children  would  not  have  the 
necessary  mental  content  to  apperceive  the  meanings  pervading 
literature  and  could  never  acquire  good  literary  tastes. 

From  this  brief  review,  it  can  be  seen  that  every  new  subject, 
with  the  possible  exception  of  nature  study,  that  has  been  intro- 
duced into  the  curriculum,  has  been  fostered  by  definite  social 
needs  and  not  by  the  dreams  of  educational  theorists.  Even 
Nature  Study  answers  real  practical  demands.  Not  a  single 
subject  can  be  dispensed  with,  if  the  elementary  school  is  to  perform 
its  proper  function  in  American  life.  The  schools  of  other  nations 
are  essaying  quite  as  much.  Over  and  above  the  three  R's,  the 
English  schools  teach  drawing,  needlework,  singing,  physical 
training,  geography,  nature  study,  history  and  a  surprisingly 
complete  course  in  religious  instruction.  The  French  and  German 
curricula  are  quite  as  crowded.^^  The  changed  conditions  of 
modern  living  must  be  borne  in  mind  by  all  who  would  criticize 
educational  procedure.  The  evolution  of  industrial  society 
forever  precludes  a  return  to  the  methods  of  the  past.  When 
society  was  less  complex,  much  could  be  accomplished  by  the 
agencies  of  informal  education,  particularly  by  the  home.  Today 
these  agencies  are  unequal  to  the  task  and  the  burden  has  been 
shifted  to  the  school.  If  the  school  is  to  be  a  real  educative  agency, 
it  must  meet  this  growing  responsibility. 

Yet  the  fact  that  new  subjects  were  only  too  often  introduced 
haphazardly  and  with  little  attempt  at  correlation  while  obsolete 
matter  was  not  always  eliminated  has  brought  about  an  over- 
crowding of  the  curriculum.  Lack  of  adequate  arrangement  of 
subject-matter  affects  the  quality  of  the  teaching  and  operates  to 
bring  the  new  subjects  into  disrepute  with  those  who  expect  the 
schools  to  provide  them  with  clerks  and  accountants  who  are 
capable  of  a  certain  amount  of  accuracy  and  speed  in  their  work. 

Moreover  there  have  been  great  changes  in  the  content  of  the 
single  subjects.  Arithmetic  has  changed  to  meet  modern  require- 
ments, but  very  often  continues  to  insist  on  applications  and  pro- 
cesses that  have  lost  their  practical  value  and  are  preserved  merely 

'^  Pedagogical  Seminary,  Vol.  I,  pp.  139-173.  Among  other  things,  72.5 
per  cent  of  these  children  had  never  seen  a  bluebird,  87.5  per  cent  had  never 
seen  growing  oats,  87  per  cent  had  no  knowledge  of  an  oak  tree,  61  per  cent  had 
never  seen  growing  peaches,  etc. 

'8  Payne,  Bruce  R.,  Public  Elementary  School  Curricula.  New  York,  1905, 
pp.  107-156. 

\ 


Discussion  of  Psychological  and  Social  Foundations    13 

for  disciplinary  purposes.'®  Geography  has  been  encumbered  with 
a  discouraging  mass  of  astronomical,  mathematical  and  physio- 
graphic detail  that  could  not  be  properly  included  in  the  modern 
definition  of  the  subject.  History  is  no  longer  content  to  tell  the 
story  of  our  own  country  to  seventh  and  eighth  grade  pupils, 
but  seeks  entrance  into  the  program  of  every  grade  and  would 
include  the  entire  past.  Reading  and  writing  have  branched  out 
into  formal  grammar,  composition,  literature,  language  study  and 
memory  gems.  Manual  training  has  developed  into  industrial 
arts;  with  nature  study  has  come  elementary  agriculture.  The 
result  is  confusion,  nerve-racking  to  the  teacher,  puzzling  to  the 
child  and  disastrous  for  the  best  interests  of  education. 

It  was  at  the  Washington  meeting  of  the  Department  of  Super- 
intendence of  the  National  Educational  Association,  in  1888,  that 
President  Eliot  in  his  address,  "Can  School  Programs  be  Shortened 
and  Enriched.'^"  first  brought  to  focus  the  question  of  reorganizing 
American  education.  Among  other  things  he  asserted  the  possi- 
bility of  improving  the  school  program.  In  1892,  at  the  suggestion 
of  President  Baker,  of  the  University  of  Colorado,  the  National 
Council  appointed  a  Committee  of  Ten,  under  the  chairmanship  of 
President  Eliot,  to  examine  into  the  subject  matter  of  secondary 
education  for  the  purpose  of  determining  limits,  methods,  time 
allotments  and  testing.  The  report  while  dealing  ex  professo  with 
secondary  education,  "covers  in  many  significant  respects,  the 
entire  range  of  the  school  system."^"  The  report  provoked  wide 
study  and  comment  not  only  at  home  but  abroad.  In  1893,  the 
Department  of  Superintendence  appointed  a  Committee  of  Fifteen 
on  elementary  education.  Its  work  was  divided  into  three  sec- 
tions— the  training  of  teachers,  the  correlation  of  studies  and  the 
organization  of  city  school  systems.  Each  sub-committee  pre- 
pared a  questionnaire  which  was  sent  to  representative  schoolmen 
throughout  the  country  and  the  results  reported  at  the  Cleveland 
meeting  in  1895.^^ 

The  sub-committee  on  the  Correlation  of  Studies  worked  under 
the  chairmanship  of  Dr.  Harris,  later  Commissioner  of  Education. 


"  Monroe,  W.  S.,  The  Derelopment  of  Arithmetic  as  a  School  Subject,  p.  148. 

*°  Report  of  the  Committee  of  Ten.  Natural  Educational  Association  Pro- 
ceedings, 1893. 

"  Bunker,  Frank  Forest,  Reorganization  of  the  Public  School  System,  p.  50. 

Report  of  the  Committee  of  Fifteen.  New  York,  1895,  published  by  the 
American  Book  Company. 


14      The  Curriculum  of  the  Catholic  Elementary  School 

Dr.  Harris*  report  has  become  one  of  the  most  important  documents 
in  American  educational  literature.  Yet  it  failed  to  suggest  any- 
thing immediately  workable  in  the  way  of  a  solution  of  curricular 
difficulties.  "Dr.  Harris  set  himself  the  task  of  setting  forth  an 
educational  doctrine — the  task  of  formulating  guiding  principles 
that  underlie  educational  endeavor.  He  therefore  pushed  the 
study  of  correlation  beyond  a  mere  inquiry  into  the  relief  of  con- 
gested programs  by  means  of  a  readjustment  of  the  various  bran- 
ches of  study  to  each  other,  to  a  more  fundamental  inquiry,  Viz., 
What  is  the  educational  significance  of  each  study  .^  What  con- 
tribution ought  each  study  to  make  to  the  education  of  the  modern 
child  .f^  What  is  the  educational  value  of  each  study  in  correlating 
the  individual  to  the  civilization  of  his  time.'^"'^^ 

In  1903,  at  the  suggestion  of  President  Baker,  a  committee  was 
appointed  to  report  on  the  desirability  of  an  investigation  into  the 
Culture  Element  and  Economy  of  Time  in  Education.  The 
committee  set  out  to  determine  the  proper  period  for  high  school 
education  and  the  devices  already  in  use  for  shortening  the  college 
course.  A  preliminary  report  was  made  at  Cleveland  in  1908."^^ 
The  Committee  was  increased  to  five  members  and  presented  a 
brief  report  at  Denver  in  1909.'"  In  1911,  President  Baker  pre- 
sented the  conclusions  he  himself  had  reached.*^  Among  other 
things,  he  stated  his  belief  that  the  tools  of  education  could  be 
acquired  at  the  age  of  twelve.  Elimination  of  useless  material  will 
stimulate  the  interest  of  the  pupil  and  result  in  better  effort.*^ 

The  Seventeenth  Yearbook  of  the  National  Society  for  the  Study 
of  Education,  1918,  carries  the  third  report  of  the  Committee  on 
the  Economy  of  Time.'*^  It  contains  studies  of  minimal  essentials 
in  elementary  school  subjects  and  a  symposium  on  the  purpose  of 
historical  instruction  in  the  seventh  and  eighth  grades.  The 
studies  are  made  in  the  light  of  social  needs  and  conditions,  and 
while  no  one  of  them  could  be  considered  absolutely  final  and 


42  Hanus,  Paul  H.,^  Modern  School.     New  York,  1904,  p.  225. 

4^  National  Educational  Association  Proceedings,  1908,  p.  466. 

**  National  Educational  Association  Proceedings,  1909,  p.  373. 

*^  National  Educational  Association  Proceedings,  1911,  p.  94. 

4®  Economy  of  Time  in  Education.  United  States  Bureau  of  Education 
Bulletin,  1913,  No.  8.  Contains  a  complete  account  of  the  work  of  the  Com- 
mittee on  "The  Culture  Element  and  the  Economy  of  Time  in  Education." 

4^  The  Seventeenth  Yearbook  of  the  National  Society  for  the  Study  of  Educa- 
tion, 1918,  Part  I,  Third  Report  of  the  Committee  on  Economy  of  Time  in 
Education. 


Discussion  of  Psychological  and  Social  Foundations    15 

satisfactory,  they  indicate  a  tangible  and  objective  method  of 
approaching  the  vexed  question. 

There  have  been  a  great  number  of  other  attempts  to  meet  the 
difficulty,  some  of  them  quite  notable  and  encouraging.  Courses 
of  studies  have  been  worked  out  by  individual  systems,  with  an 
aim  of  meeting  the  growing  function  of  the  school  on  one  hand  and 
the  congestion  of  the  program  on  the  other ."^^  Surveys  of  great 
school  systems  have  one  and  all  considered  ways  and  means  of 
reorganizing  the  curriculum.**  A  very  valuable  report  was 
published  in  1915  by  the  Iowa  State  Teachers  Association,  Com- 
mittee on  the  Elimination  of  Subject  Matter.  In  its  Sixtieth 
Annual  Session  at  Des  Moines,  Nov.  5,  1914,  a  resolution  carried 
to  appoint  '*a  representative  committee  to  study  and  make  a 
report  upon  the  elimination  of  obsolete  and  useless  topics  and 
materials  from  the  common  school  branches,  with  a  view  that  the 
efforts  of  childhood  may  be  conserved  and  the  essentials  better 
taught."^®  Only  a  few  representative  branches,  arithmetic, 
language,  grammar,  writing,  geography,  physiology  and  hygiene, 
history  and  spelling,  were  chosen  for  study.  The  study  was 
based  on  the  needs  of  the  child  and  his  ability  to  comprehend.  A 
positive  program  along  these  same  lines,  was  published  the  fol- 
lowing year. 

Concerning  the  curriculum  of  our  Catholic  schools.  Dr.  Burns 
remarks,  "Generally  speaking,  the  curriculum  of  thfe  Cathohc 
schools,  outside  the  matter  of  religious  instruction,  does  not  differ 
very  greatly  from  that  of  the  corresponding  public  schools  in  the 
same  place.  There  are  two  reasons  for  this.  One  is  the  desire  of 
the  pastor  and  the  Catholic  teachers  to  have  the  parish  school 
recognized  as  fully  abreast  of  the  pubhc  schools  so  that  the  parents 
may  not  have  cause  to  complain.  Another  reason  is  found  in  the 
fact  that  the  same  general  causes  that  have  operated  to  bring  about 
changes  in  the  public  school  curriculum,  have  had  influence  also 
upon  the  course  of  studies  in  the  Catholic  schools — an  influence  not 
so  great  perhaps,  but  still  direct  and  constant.  "^^ 

*'  Especially  noteworthy  are  the  courses  worked  out  in  Baltimore,  Boston, 
and  in  the  Speyer  and  Horace  Mann  Schools,  conducted  in  conjunction  with 
Teachers  College,  Columbia. 

*'  cf.  Cleveland,  St.  Paul,  San  Antonio,  Portland  Surveys.  Also  McMurry, 
Frank,  Elementary  School  Standards,  New  York,  1914. 

'"  loica  State  Teachers  Anttociation.  Report  of  Committee  on  the  Elimination 
of  Subject  Matter,  1914,  p.  3. 

"  The  Growth  and  Development  of  the  Catholic  School  System  in  the  United 
States.     New  York,  1912,  p.  351. 


16      The  Curriculum  of  the  Catholic  Elementary  School 

The  curriculum  has  come  up  for  discussion  in  the  meetings  of 
the  Catholic  Educational  Association,  from  time  to  time.  A 
paper  read  by  Dr.  F.  W.  Howard,  at  the  New  Orleans  meeting  in 
1913,  dealt  in  detail  with  problems  of  the  curriculum,  not  only  as 
they  affect  elementary  education  but  higher  education  as  well. 
The  paper  was  ably  discussed  by  Brother  John  Waldron,  S.M.^^ 
In  1917,  a  Committee  on  the  curriculum  was  appointed,  with 
the  Rev.  Patrick  J.  McCormick,  Ph.D.,  Professor  of  Education  at 
the  Catholic  University  of  America,  as  chairman.  In  a  paper 
read  at  Buffalo  meeting  in  1917,  Dr.  McCormick  outlined  the 
principles  of  standardization.^  The  first  step  toward  standardiz- 
ing education,  is  the  standardization  of  the  curriculum.  This  will 
in  turn  standardize  the  organization  of  education,  the  grading, 
the  text-book,  methods  and  teacher  training.  The  committee 
has  been  working  along  these  lines  and  the  results  of  their  study 
are  awaited  with  keenest  interest. 

One  who  reads  the  record  of  the  growth  of  the  elementary  curric- 
ulum and  the  efforts  that  have  been  made  to  reorganize  it,  cannot 
but  feel  that  what  is  needed  above  all  else  is  a  definite  set  of 
principles  for  the  guidance  of  elementary  school  procedure. 
What  is  the  function  of  the  elementary  school?  What  is  its  rela- 
tion to  society.'^  What  shall  it  attempt  to  do  for  the  individual? 
Is  it  simply  a  preparation  for  secondary  education?  Or  is  it 
something  complete  in  itself,  having  its  own  peculiar  nature  and 
function,  aiming  to  accomplish  its  own  objectives  and  make  certain 
differences  in  the  lives  of  children,  regardless  of  their  future 
educational  fate?  In  the  light  of  experience  and  actual  facts, 
this  would  seem  to  be  true.  The  elementary  school  sums  up  the 
complete  education  of  approximately  80  per  cent  of  our  American 
children.  In  the  elementary  school  they  must  receive  the  neces- 
sary information  and  character  formation  for  future  life,  if  they 
are  to  receive  them  at  all.  This  means  that  mere  training  in  the 
school  arts  can  no  longer  be  emphasized  at  the  expense  of  real 
education. 

In  the  present  study,  the  question  is  dealt  with  in  its  foundational 
aspects.     The  ambition  is  to  discover  the  philosophy  of  American 

"  Howard,  Francis  W.,  The  Problem  of  the  Curriculum.  Catholic  Educa- 
tional Association,  Report  of  the  Proceedings  and  Addresses,  Vol.  X,  No.  1, 
1913.  p.  132. 

"  McCormick,  Patrick  J.,  Standards  in  Education.  Catholic  Educational 
Association,  Report  of  Proceedings  and  Addresses,  Vol.  XIV,  No.  1,  1917,  p.  70. 


Discussion  of  Psychological  and  Social  Foundations    17 

elementary  school  education.  There  must  be  some  set  of  working 
principles  which  are  recognizable.  Armed  with  these,  the  Catholic 
school  can  more  confidently  go  forth  to  accomplish  its  great  task 
of  raising  up  true  followers  of  Jesus  Christ,  men  and  women  who 
exale  the  sweet  odor  of  His  influence,  not  only  when  they  are  at 
their  devotions,  but  in  the  council  chamber,  the  market  place, 
the  workshop  and  the  home  as  well. 


CHAPTER  II 

SUBJECT-MATTER   AND   SOCIETY THE   PAST 

Two  elements  are  basic  in  any  valid  philosophy  of  education, 
the  needs  of  society  and  the  needs  of  the  individual.  The  child 
enters  upon  life,  his  powers  undeveloped,  his  mind  shrouded  in 
ignorance,  his  habits  unfornied.  By  nature  endowed  with  a  set 
of  instincts  whereby  he  can  effect  certaiji  elemental  adjustments  to 
his  environment,  he  is  utterly  helpless  in  the  face  of  that  highly 
complex  condition  of  human  living  that  we  call  society.  It  is 
the  function  of  education  to  raise  the  child  above  the  level  of  his 
native  reactions,  to  make  him  heir  to  the  treasures  civilization  has 
amassed  in  its  onward  progress,  and  in  the  process  of  so  doing,  to 
develop  his  powers,  to  substitute  for  instinct  rational  habit,  to 
impart  to  him  the  truth  that  shall  make  him  free.  In  order  to 
effect  this,  education  must  know  the  nature  of  the  human  mind  and 
the  conditions  of  its  growth  and  development;  but  it  must  likewise 
be  conscious  of  the  character  of  the  social  environment  for  which 
it  would  fit  the  child.  In  other  words  its  subject  matter  must  be 
social  as  well  as  psychological,  must  prepare  for  life,  the  while  it 
gives  the  power  to  live. 

Regarded  in  one  light,  education  is  society's  means  of  self- 
preservation  and  self -perpetuation.  In  the  march  of  progress, 
human  society  stores  up  an  amount  of  intellectual  and  moral 
treasure,  builds  up  out  of  experience  certain  institutions,  develops 
approved  modes  of  procedure.  These  must  perdure,  if  progress 
is  to  have  any  continuity.  Else  each  succeeding  generation  would 
have  to  relearn  the  lessons  of  life  and  living. 

Accordingly  it  has  always  been  the  principal,  though  for  the 
most  part  implicit  and  unconscious  aim  of  the  human  race,  to 
educate  its  immature  members,  to  impart  to  them  the  knowledge 
and  train  them  in  the  skills  that  are  necessary  to  maintain  a  given 
social  footing.  The  child  must  be  adjusted  to  the  environment. 
Among  primitive  peoples,  this  process  was  and  is,  comparatively 
simple.  The  father  trained  the  son  in  the  arts  of  the  chase  and  of 
war,  for  the  tribe  demands  first  of  all,  food  and  protection.  The 
mother,  upon  whom  devolved  all  that  concerned  shelter  and  the 
preparation  of  food  and  clothing,  trained  her  daughter  in  these 
18 


Discussion  of  Psychological  and  Social  Foundations    19 

activities.  This  was  education  for  the  immediate  demands  of 
practical  life.^*  But  over  and  above  this  was  a  training  which 
we  might  call  theoretical.  It  was  not  enough  that  the  young 
should  learn  the  arts  of  the  present;  race-preservation  demanded  a 
knowledge  of  the  past.  They  listened  while  the  elders  of  the  tribe 
described  in  solemn  cadence  the  adventures  of  the  ancient  heroes 
and  in  time  themselves  learned  these  epics  by  rote.  The  mysteries 
of  nature  came  to  be  clothed  in  myth  and  natural  phenomena  to 
be  ascribed  to  occult  agencies.  The  conduct  of  the  tribe,  its 
mutual  duties  and  obligations,  as  well  as  its  religious  life,  consti- 
tute the  matter  of  its  theoretical  education. ^^ 

Primitive  education  is  interesting  as  being  primarily  social.  It 
is  carried  on  in  the  midst  of  the  group  and  initiates  the  child  im- 
mediately into  group  life  and  needs.  It  is  not  intellectual  and 
remote  from  life,  as  education  among  highly  developed  peoples 
tends  to  become.  It  deals  with  situations  that  are  present  and 
with  problems  that  are  vital.  It  is  not  without  moral  value,  for 
the  individual  must  continually  submit  his  will  to  the  group.  It 
has  a  religious  value,  elementary  and  distorted  though  it  be,  for 
even  the  lowest  savages  believe  in  some  sort  of  animism,  whilst 
more  developed  tribes  have  a  considerable  religious  lore  which 
affords  them  some  insight  into  the  world  of  the  spirit  and  aids 
them  to  find  a  supernatural  sanction  for  the  law  of  nature.^® 

The  discovery  of  the  art  of  writing  marks  the  beginning  of  educa- 
tion as  a  formal  institution  in  human  society.  When  men  found 
that  they  could  make  permanent  records  and  thus  preserve  and 
perpetuate  their  traditions,  a  new  momentum  was  given  to  progress 
and  civilization  and  culture  were  born.  No  longer  were  religion, 
history,  morals  and  law  left  to  the  mercy  of  word  of  mouth.  They 
were  snatched  from  a  precarious  basis  and  made  sure  and  lasting. 
Moreover,  with  the  mastery  of  the  art  of  writing,  a  wider  and 
deeper  kind  of  learning  was  made  possible.  The  school  became 
a  necessary  demand.  If  the  social  inheritance  of  the  human  race 
was  to  be  transmitted  by  means  of  written  record,  men  must  learn 
Dot  alone  the  art  of  making  records,  but  of  deciphering  them  as 
well.  The  art  of  writing  called  for  its  complement,  the  art  of 
reading.     These  arts,  being  artificial,  could  not  be  acquired  by 

"  Monroe,  Paul,  Texl-book  in  the  History  of  Education.     New  York,  1914,  p.  6. 

"  Ibid.,  p.  7. 

••  Hart,  Joseph  Kinmont,  Democracy  in  Education.     New  York,  1918,  p.  20. 


20      The  Curriculum  of  the  Catholic  Elementary  School 

mere  unconscious  imitation,  as  the  practical  arts  had  been  acquired 
before,  but  called  for  formal,  explicit  education.^" 

The  introduction  of  reading  and  writing  made  another  tremen- 
dous difference  in  the  process  of  education.  Heretofore,  education 
had  been  immediate  and  direct;  the  school  had  been  life-experience. 
Henceforward,  it  is  indirect,  effected  by  means  of  a  mediating 
instrument,  the  book.  As  a  consequence  education  tends  to 
become  remote  from  life  and  to  take  on  an  artificial  character.  A 
new  problem  arises,  the  problem  of  keeping  education  close  to  life, 
of  preventing  its  becoming  formal  and  theoretical,  of  guarding  lest 
it  render  men  unfit  for  life  instead  of  efficient  in  practical  concerns. 
This  problem  must  be  met  by  every  age,  for  as  society  changes  and 
the  conditions  of  life  become  different,  education  must  change  too. 
The  school  must  be  kept  close  to  every-day  experience;  to  be  really 
effective,  it  must  be  colored  by  present  life.  Yet  because  of  the 
nature  of  the  media  with  which  its  deals,  it  finds  this  adjustment 
difficult.^^  Means  easily  come  to  be  treated  as  ends,  and  the 
book,  instead  of  being  regarded  as  the  key  to  life,  is  accepted  as 
life  itself.  The  function  of  education  as  adjustment  to  the  environ- 
ment begins  to  demand  particular  emphasis. 

Inasmuch  as  the  present  study  is  concerned  with  elementary 
education  solely,  we  will  confine  ourselves  here  to  an  examination 
of  the  influence  of  social  needs  upon  the  beginnings  of  education 
in  the  various  epochs  of  the  world's  history.  Among  earlier 
peoples  elementary  education  was  received  in  the  home.  There 
were  nations  who  considered  ability  to  read  and  write  a  common 
necessity,  and  not  an  art  to  be  cultivated  by  any  special  group  or 
caste.  The  early  Israelites  looked  upon  the  Word  of  God  as 
contained  in  the  Sacred  Scriptures  as  the  most  important  thing  in 
life,  and  demanded  a  knowledge  thereof  of  every  individual.  The 
family  was  responsible  for  the  imparting  of  such  knowledge.^^ 
Likewise  the  Chinese  were  inspired  by  religious  reasons  in  their 
care  for  universal  literacy.  Though  only  the  privileged  were 
destined  for  higher  learning,  all  the  children  of  the  realm  might, 
if  their  parents  desired,  acquire  the  rudiments  of  reading  and 
writing.  The  nature  of  the  language  rendered  this  learning 
exceedingly  difficult  and  long  hours  must  be  spent  in  memorizing 

"  Willmann,  Otto,  Didaktik,  Braunschweig,  1894,  Band  I,  p.  113. 
^*  Dewey,  John,  Democracy  and  Education.     New  York,   1916,  p.  9. 
69  Willmann,  Otto,  Didaktik,  Band  I,  pp.  124-133. 


Discussion  of  Psychological  and  Social  Foundations    21 

a  great  number  of  characters  and  in  conning  by  rote  the  canonical 
books.^^' 

It  remained  for  the  Greeks  to  organize  a  real  system  of  education, 
and  though  in  the  beginning  it  was  rather  indefinite  in  character, 
still  it  showed  the  same  general  arrangement  as  the  schools  of 
today.  The  first  period  extended  from  the  sixth  or  eighth  to 
approximately  the  fourteenth  or  sixteenth  year;  the  second  period 
lasted  until  the  twenty-first  year  and  the  last  from  that  time 
onward.*^  The  first  period  was  that  of  school  education,  the 
second,  the  college,  which  in  Sparta  lasted  until  the  age  of  thirty ,®2 
and  the  third,  university  education. 

Before  the  introduction  of  written  language,  the  education  of 
the  Greek  child,  resembled  very  much  that  of  youths  of  other 
early  nations.  The  knowledge  he  acquired  was  gleaned  incident- 
ally or  by  imitation,  whether  at  home  or  abroad.  The  aim  was 
preparation  for  the  practical  life  of  a  citizen.  From  the  earliest 
times  of  which  we  have  record,  there  were  two  elements  in  Greek 
education,  gymnastics  for  the  body  and  music  for  the  soul.^ 
The  latter  had  nothing  to  do  with  the  training  of  the  intelligence 
but  was  intended  to  strengthen  and  harmonize  the  emotions.  With 
the  introduction  of  the  book  came  the  school.  Under  its  aegis, 
education  gradually  changed  its  character  and  became  diagogic, 
as  Davidson  puts  it."  The  practical  aim  gave  way  to  diagoge,  or 
preparation  for  social  enjoyment  in  the  cultivation  of  the  arts  and 
philosophy.  The  Didaskaleon,  or  Music  School,  widened  its 
scope  and  introduced  literary  and  moral  instruction.  Reading, 
writing  and  arithmetic  were  taught,  besides  patriotic  songs  and 
the  great  epic  poems. 

Sparta,  whose  civilization  was  primarily  military  in  character, 
provided  schools  that  gave  little  place  to  reading  and  writing,  but 


•°  Monroe,  Paul,  Text-book  in  the  Ilistory  of  Education,  p.  28.  Despite  the 
fact  that  the  Oriental  peoples  were  so  largely  engaged  in  trade  and  that  the 
Egyptians  in  particular  were  such  tremendous  builders,  it  is  curious  to  note 
that  there  are  no  records  of  the  teaching  of  arithmetic  and  mathematics. 
Among  the  Egyptians,  there  were,  however,  institutions  conducted  in  con- 
junction with  those  destined  for  higher  learning,  where  architecture,  sculpture 
and  painting  were  taught. 

"  Ibid.,  p.  83. 

«  Ibid.,  p.  75. 

"  Davidson,  Thomas.  The  Education  of  the  Greek  People.  New  York, 
1906,  p.  61. 

•*  Ibid.,  p.  58. 


22      The  Curriculum  of  the  Catholic  Elementary  School 

insisted  on  physical  training,  discipline  and  the  recital  of  ancient 
deeds  of  valor  for  the  purpose  of  fostering  martial  virtue.^^ 

With  the  close  of  the  Persian  Wars,  a  mighty  change  took  place 
in  the  life  and  thought  of  the  Greek  people.  The  change  had  been 
foreshadowed,  in  a  manner,  by  the  intellectual  readjustment  that 
had  been  taking  place  in  Athens  prior  to  the  war.^®  Early  Greek 
life  had  been  dominated  by  the  current  mythology  and  the  morals 
of  the  people  looked  to  the  gods  for  sanction.  Gradually,  however, 
the  ancient  polytheism  had  lost  its  hold,  though  the  religious  rites 
that  had  grown  up  around  it  continued  to  hold  sway.  The  social 
order  was  strengthened  by  these  rites  as  well  as  the  ideal  of  com- 
munity life  that  had  survived  the  religion  which  had  sponsored  its 
origin.  The  reflective  thought  that  had  undermined  the  worship 
of  the  gods,  now  turned  itself  to  a  criticism  of  the  existing  political 
and  social  ideals,  and  gradually  gave  rise  to  an  individualism  that 
was  no  longer  content  with  yielding  an  unthinking  allegiance  to 
the  group.  The  Persian  Wars  resulted  in  the  hegemony  of  Athens, 
a  leadership  based  not  so  much  on  the  common  choice  of  the  other 
states,  as  upon  Athenian  assert iveness.  But  the  individualism 
practised  by  Athens  in  foreign  matters,  reacted  within  her  own 
walls.  The  Sophists  rose,  their  critical  philosophy  questioning 
everything  and  blasting  the  very  foundations  of  the  state.  Institu- 
tions long  maintained  on  the  basis  of  habit,  trembled  in  the  balance 
and  opinion  waged  war  on  conviction  born  of  an  authority  no 
longer  recognized.®^ 

Naturally  this  change  in  thought  had  its  effect  upon  society. 
The  spirit  of  the  environment  became  individualistic  rather  than 
social,  and  Man,  rather  than  the  State,  came  to  be  regarded  as  the 
measure  of  all  things.  There  was  a  corresponding  shifting  in  the 
ideals  of  education.  The  schools  began  to  strive  for  the  improve- 
ment of  the  individual  in  place  of  preparation  for  civic  life.  The 
old  rigor  of  the  gymnasium,  intended  to  impart  strength  xmd  vigor 
to  the  body  in  order  that  it  might  become  a  fit  instrument  for  the 
performance  of  civic  duties,  was  relaxed  and  the  new  ideal  became 
the  acquiring  of  grace  and  beauty  for  the  purpose  of  enjoyment  and 
cultured  leisure.  There  was  likewise  a  change  in  the  Music  School. 
Where  the  old  aim  had  been  the  development  of  those  mental 


^  Monroe,  Paul,  Text-hook  in  the  History  of  Education,  p.  75. 
^  Davidson,  Thomas,  The  Education  of  the  Greek  People,  p.  79. 
"  Ibid.,  p.  83. 


Discussion  of  Psychological  and  Social  Foundations    23 

qualities  which  would  enable  a  man  to  play  a  worthy  role  at  home 
and  in  the  market  place,  the  new  aim  became  individual  happiness. 
A  new  poetry  supplemented,  if  it  did  not  entirely  supplant  the 
traditional  epic;  the  strong  Doric  airs  gave  way  to  the  lighter 
Phrygian  and  Lydian.  Discussion  and  intellectual  fencing  became 
the  order  of  the  day  and  eventually  fostered  the  introduction  of 
grammar,  logic  and  dialectic.  The  program  of  the  lower  schools 
was  almost  modern  in  the  variety  of  subjects  it  offered. 

Socrates  sought  to  reduce  the  sophistic  chaos  to  order  by  his 
doctrine  of  the  idea  and  the  dialectic  method.  He  sought  to 
reestablish  the  old  social  order,  based  as  it  was  on  habit,  on  a  new 
principle  derived  from  reflection.  His  influence  was  responsible 
for  the  introduction  of  dialectics  in  the  schools.  Physical  training 
was  forced  to  assume  a  role  of  lessening  importance.®^ 

Plato's  teaching  concerning  the  nature  of  ideas  and  his  theory 
of  the  State,  while  it  did  not  effect  any  profound  change,  had  its 
influence  on  educational  thought.  He  regarded  the  school  as  a 
selective  agency  for  determining  the  class  in  society  to  which  a 
man  shall  belong.  At  the  end  of  the  primary  period,  it  should  at 
once  be  seen  who  is  adapted  by  nature  to  become  the  craftsman, 
the  soldier  or  the  ruler.  Plato  would  bridge  the  chasm  between 
the  practical  and  the  diagogic,  by  demonstrating  that  only  the 
select  few  are  fitted  for  the  latter.  Davidson  says,  "The  educa- 
tion which  had  aimed  at  making  good  citizens  was  spurned  by 
men  who  sought  only  to  be  guided  by  the  vision  of  divine  things. 
Hence  the  old  gymnastics  and  music  fell  into  disrepute,  their  place 
being  taken  by  dialectic  and  philosophy,  which  latter  Plato  makes 
even  Socrates  call  the  highest  music. '*®^ 

Aristotle's  educational  ideas  did  not  differ  essentially  from 
Plato's.  Only  the  prospective  citizen  should  be  educated  and 
citizenship  is  a  boon  to  be  conferred  only  on  the  most  worthy. 
Merchants,  artisans  and  slaves  are  to  be  excluded.  Physical 
training  should  come  first,  followed  by  the  moral  and  the  intellec- 
tual. Intellectual  nature  is  man's  highest  good  and  can  be 
acquired  by  means  of  the  traditional  subject-matter  of  the  schools, 
provided  that  something  more  than  its  utilitarian  character  be 
kept  in  view.     "  To  seek  after  the  useful  does  not  become  free  and 


•»  Davidson,  Thomas,  The  Education  of  the  Greek  People,  p.  113. 
•»  Ihid.,  p.  139. 


24      The  Curriculum  of  the  Catholic  Elementary  School 

exalted  souls. "^^  Music  is  important  as  a  means  of  amusement 
and  relaxation;  dialectic  and  logic  are  fundamental. 

Thus  did  the  changing  ideals  and  conditions  of  the  Greek  people 
reflect  themselves  in  education.  In  the  beginning  practical  and 
civic  in  character,  Greek  education  gradually  assumes  a  theoretical 
complexion,  and  the  farther  it  progresses  in  this  direction,  the  less 
universal  does  it  become.  At  first  it  included  all  classes,  for  every 
man  is  a  citizen  of  the  state.  But  when  Plato  drew  up  a  plan  of 
the  state  wherein  some  were  destined  to  rule  and  others  to  obey, 
and  when  Aristotle  closed  the  doors  of  citizenship  upon  such  as 
worked  at  menial  tasks,  the  school  tended  to  become  an  esoteric 
institution.  The  effects  of  all  this  on  subject  matter  are  plainly 
discernible.  Diagoge,  more  and  more  theoretically  interpreted, 
becomes  the  ideal;  Gymnastics  and  Music,  so  cherished  in  the 
beginning,  fall  into  a  neglect  that  borders  on  contempt.  The 
history  of  Greek  education  affords  an  interesting  example  of  the 
manner  in  which  education  is  affected  by  the  environment.  The 
school  is  intended  as  a  preparation  for  life;  the  quality  of  the  life 
considered  desirable  at  any  given  time,  will  always  determine  the 
quality  of  the  preparation  the  school  must  give. 

The  same  phenomenon  evinces  itself  in  the  history  of  Roman 
education.  The  elementary  school  of  the  early  Romans  was  the 
home,  where  the  boy  learned  the  arts  of  war  and  agriculture.  The 
Laws  of  the  Twelve  Tables  must  be  learned  by  heart  and  once 
mastered  were  the  index  of  culture.  The  father  taught  the  arts  of 
reading  and  writing.  Later  on  we  find  an  occasional  school 
referred  to,  in  particular  when  through  the  agency  of  commerce 
and  diplomacy,  Greece  came  to  be  a  factor  in  Roman  life.  Then 
it  was  that  the  Odyssey  was  adopted  as  a  text  in  the  schools  and 
the  Greek  language  became  an  element  in  subject-matter  (233 
B.C.).  The  elementary  school  was  entered  by  boys  of  six  or  seven. 
It  was  known  as  the  "Indus"  and  in  it  were  learned  the  arts  of 
reading  and  writing  with  simple  operations  in  arithmetic.  The 
Odyssey,  in  Latin,  was  the  first  reading  book  and  a  great  many 
maxims  and  bits  of  poetry  were  copied  in  Latin  and  conned  by 
rote.  The  custom  of  learning  the  Laws  of  the  Twelve  Tables  was 
continued  until  the  first  century  before  Christ.  ^^ 

When  the  decline  of  Rome  set  in,  we  note  once  more  that 

70  Aristotle,  PolUics,  Vol.  VIII,  p.  3. 

7^  McCormick,  Patrick  J.,  History  of  Education.  Washington,  1915,  p. 
53ss. 


Discussion  of  Psychological  and  Social  Foundations    25 

education  is  no  longer  fostered  for  the  practical  advantage  of  the 
whole  people.  It  becomes  a  hollow,  empty,  formal  process,  making 
for  affectation  and  dilettantism — a  badge  of  distinction  for  a 
favored  class.  In  other  words,  it  gives  preparation  for  a  life  that 
is  neither  worthy  or  universal.  It  produces  weak  and  effeminate 
characters.  The  result  in  the  case  of  Rome  was  the  injustice  and 
oppression  in  social  life  that  sounded  the  knell  of  the  Empire.  ^^ 

The  educational  concerns  of  the  early  Church  were  two-fold. 
On  the  one  hand  there  was  the  duty  of  training  the  young  in  the 
doctrines  and  practises  of  Christianity.  The  world  must  come  to 
know  Christ  Who  is  its  only  salvation.  Whose  words  offer  the  only 
valid  solution  to  its  problems.  In  the  beginning  faith  had  come 
by  hearing,  but  with  the  death  of  the  Apostles  the  written  Word 
assumed  a  tremendous  importance.  It  demanded  ability  to 
read.  At  first  such  learning  was  given  in  the  home,  for  the  schools 
of  the  age  were  so  thoroughly  pagan  in  character,  so  much  opposed 
in  spirit  and  practice  to  the  teachings  of  Christ,  that  men  and 
women  who  were  ever  ready  to  lay  down  their  lives  in  defense  of 
their  faith,  would  with  little  likelihood  risk  the  faith  of  their 
children  by  allowing  them  to  attend  the  existing  institutions  of 
learning.'^ 

On  the  other  hand,  the  Church  was  ever  conscious  that  though 
her  children  were  not  of  the  world,  they  were  none  the  less  in  the 
world  and  must  be  able  to  maintain  themselves  in  the  struggle  of 
life.  At  times,  it  is  true,  we  are  at  a  loss  to  determine  the  exact 
attitude  of  the  Church  toward  secular  learning.  Tertullian, 
Chrysostom,  Jerome,  all  great  scholars  themselves,  condemned  it 
as  dangerous  to  faith  and  morals.  When  we  remember  that 
secular  learning  was  largely  comprised  in  the  literary  story  of  the 
pagan  gods  and  that  it  subsumed  a  philosophy  that  was  pagan, 
we  can  readily  appreciate  the  attitude  of  the  Fathers.  Christ  had 
come  to  save  the  world  from  precisely  this  sort  of  error,  and  until 
the  old  order  had  disappeared  and  the  triumph  of  the  Church  was 
assured,  it  were  better  to  attempt  no  compromise  with  the  world. ^^ 

There  was  provision  for  elementary  instruction  in  the  early 
monasteries.  Every  novice  must  learn  to  read;  according  to  the 
Rule  of  St.  Benedict,  he  is  required  to  read  through  a  whole  book 

"  Monroe,  Paul,  Text-book  in  the  History  of  Education,  p.  272. 
"  Lalanne,  J.  A.,  Influence  des  Peres  de  UEglise  sur  L' Education  Publique, 
Paris.  1850,  p.  7. 
'♦  Ibid.,  p.  39. 


26      The  Curriculum  of  the  Catholic  Elementary  School 

during  Lent.  Moreover,  in  their  great  work  of  civilizing  the 
barbarians,  the  Benedictines  found  that  the  interests  of  the  Gospel 
could  be  best  served  if  they  fitted  themselves  to  become  teachers  of 
agriculture,  handwork,  art,  science  and  cultural  activities  of  every 
sort.^^ 

Summing  up,  we  may  say  that  the  early  Christian  schools 
cherished  a  religious  ideal  and  responded  to  a  religious  need. 
Whenever  they  admitted  subject  matter  that  was  secular,  they  did 
so  with  a  view  of  serving  a  higher  end.  The  environment  to  which 
they  sought  to  adjust  the  child,  was  not  the  existing  environment 
with  its  myriad  evils,  but  an  ideal  environment  to  be  effected 
through  the  transforming  power  of  the  Word  of  God.  The  schools 
that  developed  under  this  ideal  came  nearer  to  the  notion  of  true 
education  than  any  of  the  schools  of  antiquity.  They  sought  not 
only  information  and  external  culture,  but  true  education.  Know- 
ing was  supplemented  with  doing,  the  theoretical  was  combined 
with  the  practical,  faith  required  act.  All  things  met  in  religion 
and  thus  was  brought  about  a  unity  and  coherence  of  subject 
matter  that  had  not  been  approximated  in  the  past.^^ 

Throughout  the  Middle  Ages,  religion  continued  to  dominate 
life  and  consequently  education.  The  Christian  ideal  permeated 
all  the  lower  schools  of  the  time,  the  Cathedral  and  Chantry  schools, 
the  great  monastic  schools  and  the  schools  established  by  the 
various  religious  orders.  It  was  the  soul  of  Chivalry  and  formed 
a  background  for  the  training  afforded  by  the  Guilds.  Not  that 
there  was  not  wide  provision  made  for  secular  learning,  but  secular 
learning  was  sought  as  a  means  of  coming  to  the  fulness  of  Christian 
life. 

Charlemagne  effected  a  great  educational  revival  under  the 
direction  of  Alcuin  (735-804).  The  new  nations  must  become 
heirs  of  the  civilization  that  had  preceded  them,  the  while  their 
own  characteristics  are  developed.  Education  is  the  agency  which 
can  accomplish  this  end.  The  famous  Capitularies  gave  minute 
directions  as  to  the  training  of  the  young.  The  importance  of 
religious  training  is  emphasized  and  this  in  turn  demands  the 
ability  to  read  and  write,  lest  there  will  be  **  lacking  the  power 
rightly  to  comprehend  the  Word  of  God."^^     Schools  for  boys  are 


76  Willmann,  Otto.  Didakiik,  Band  I.  p.  239. 

'« Ibid.,  p.  240. 

7'  Migne,  Patrologia  Latina,  Vol.  cv,  p.  196. 


Discussion  of  Psychological  and  Social  Foundations    27 

to  be  established  in  every  monastery  and  episcopal  See,  where 
they  will  be  taught  reading,  writing,  arithmetic  and  grammar. 

The  development  of  the  higher  schools  with  the  Trivium  and 
Quadrivium  and  the  rise  of  Scholasticism,  brought  the  civilization 
of  the  Middle  Ages  to  its  zenith,  and  the  conclusion  is  valid  that 
the  tremendous  work  done  in  the  Universities  and  the  consequent 
spread  of  knowledge,  could  not  but  stimulate  the  lower  schools. 
They  supplied  the  knowledge  of  letters  necessary  for  admittance 
into  the  Temple  of  Learning  and  with  them  can  be  classed  the 
grammar  schools,  which  according  to  the  analogy  represent  the 
first  and  second  floors  of  the  edifice.^* 

The  Renaissance  came  and  with  it  a  new  trend  in  education. 
Many  causes  operated  to  bring  about  the  great  rebirth  of  ancient 
learning,  the  return  to  the  civilizations  of  Greece  and  Rome  as  to 
the  fountain  of  wisdom.  Scholasticism  like  all  things  human, 
saw  the  day  of  its  decline.  The  later  Scholastics  lost  sight  of  the 
end  of  their  system,  so  eager  were  they  for  the  mental  game  that 
its  method  afforded  them.  Formalism  always  breeds  revolt  and 
reaction,  and  when  men  like  Dante,  Petrarch  and  Boccaccio  came 
forth  to  illumine  the  past  with  the  beacon  light  of  their  intelligence, 
they  found  a  world  prepared  to  follow  where  they  led.  Italy 
always  proud  of  her  lineal  descent  from  the  Romans,  hailed  their 
message  with  joy.  The  past  became  the  absorbing  interest  of  the 
day.  History  was  enthusiastically  cultivated.  More  than  that, 
actual  life  and  daily  experience  were  accounted  subjects  worthy 
of  study.  Things,  not  books  and  formulae  were  to  be  studied. 
The  physical  universe  was  opened  to  investigation  and  modern 
science  was  born;  the  emotions,  which  had  suffered  at  the  hands 
of  the  late  Scholastics,  came  into  their  own.  Ancient  literature  was 
the  key  to  all  this  varied  knowledge,  revealing  as  it  did  the  old, 
classic  civilization  as  a  kind  of  mirror  of  the  present,  wherein 
things  so  seemingly  sordid  in  the  garish  light  of  the  present,  were 
reflected  in  a  nobler  and  more  ideal  vision. 

The  elementary  education  of  the  time  was  concerned  with  prep- 
aration for  the  classical  studies.  The  elements  of  Latin  and 
Greek  were  taught  as  before,  but  now  with  a  new  end  in  view.  It 
was  no  longer  the  Grammar,  Rhetoric  and  Dialectic  of  the  Trivium 
that  the  child  anticipated,  but  the  reading  of  the  ancient  masters. 

'*  Cubberly,  E.  C,  Syllabus  of  Lectures  on  the  History  of  Education.  New 
York,  1904,  p.  85. 


28      The  Curriculum  of  the  Catholic  Elementary  School 

Not  that  the  schools  of  the  early  Renaissance  were  mere  literary- 
academies.  Vittorino  da  Feltre  sought  to  prepare  youths  for 
life.^^  Literature  was  the  basis,  but  this  was  because  it  was 
deemed  best  suited  to  give  a  liberal  education,  the  education  worthy 
of  a  free  man.  Erasmus  was  zealous  for  the  knowledge  of  truth 
as  well  as  the  knowledge  of  words,  though  he  held  that  in  order  of 
time,  the  latter  must  be  acquired  first.  Object  teaching,  the 
learning  of  reading  and  writing  "per  lusum,"  arithmetic,  music, 
astronomy — all  were  to  be  studied,  but  always  in  a  subordinate 
way  to,  letters.  Quite  modern  is  Vives,  in  his  treatment  of 
geography,  mathematics  and  history. ^'^  While  all  the  humanists 
defended  Latin  as  the  language  of  the  cultured  man,  they  saw  the 
necessity  of  training  in  the  vernacular.  True,  it  is  to  be  learned 
in  the  home,  but  the  teacher  is  to  be  ever  on  the  alert  to  see  that 
the  native  language  is  correctly  written  and  spoken. 

The  great  humanist  schools  were  intended  for  noble  and  influen- 
tial youths.  But  there  was  a  ferment  at  work  among  the  masses. 
Economic  conditions  were  changing.  The  old  feudalism  was 
breaking  down.  Discoverers  went  forth  to  find  new  trade  routes 
and  free  towns  were  springing  up  everywhere.  A  new  impetus 
was  given  to  commerce  and  a  new  tj^je  of  education  was  demanded 
for  the  future  merchant.  Town  schools  were  established,  Latin 
in  character  but  practical  in  their  aim.  Elementary  adventure 
schools  and  vernacular  teachers  came  into  vogue.  In  1400,  the 
city  of  Lubeck  was  given  the  right  to  maintain  four  vernacular 
schools  where  pupils  could  be  trained  in  reading,  writing  and  good 
manners.  ^^  There  were  also  writing  schools  and  reckoning  schools, 
Sometimes  the  Latin  schools  taught  arithmetic  for  disciplinary 
reasons.  But  merchants  needed  clerks  who  could  manipulate 
number  in  business  transactions  and  hence  the  reckoning  master 
must  teach  "Latin  and  German  writing,  reckoning,  book-keeping 
and  other  useful  arts  and  good  manners. "^^ 

We  note,  then,  that  the  needs  of  society  affected  elementary 
education  during  the  period  of  the  Renaissance,  in  a  two-fold  way. 
First,  the  humanistic  character  of  the  higher  schools  demanded 
linguistic  training  for  those  who  were  in  a  position  to  become 

'*  McCormick,  Patrick  J.,  History  of  Education,  p.  176. 

80  Ibid,  p.  202. 

81  Parker,  S.  C,   The  History  of  Modern  Elementary  Education,  p.  30. 

82  Record  of  appointment  of  a  reckoning  master  at  Rostock,  1627.  Ibid., 
p.  30. 


Discussion  of  Psychological  and  Social  Foundations    29 

gentlemen  and  scholars.  Secondly,  the  development  of  commerce 
and  business  called  for  a  more  universal  ability  to  read  and  WTite 
the  vernacular  and  to  use  numbers  in  a  practical  manner. 

The  study  of  the  vernacular  was  given  added  impetus  by  the 
Protestant  Revolt.  The  Bible  became  the  basis  of  Protestant 
belief  and  must  be  made  accessible  to  the  masses.  Hence  the 
zeal  to  translate  it  into  the  vernacular  and  to  teach  the  people  to 
read.  The  Catholic  Bible  had  long  before  been  translated  into 
the  vernacular.  The  invention  of  printing  stimulated  the  spread 
of  vernacular  literature  of  a  secular  kind  and  made  ability  to  read 
an  indispensable  requisite  for  all  who  would  take  part  in  com- 
mercial affairs.  Where  the  churches  became  nationalized,  as  in 
Protestant  Germany,  the  State  fostered  education,  though  it  is 
interesting  to  note  that  the  rulers  took  care  to  provide  Latin  schools 
showing  thus  a  preference  for  class  education  as  against  the  educa- 
tion of  the  masses. 

In  England  elementary  schools  were  not  provided  by  the  State 
or  the  Established  Church.  The  "dame  schools,"  private  enter- 
prises, took  care  of  this  phase  of  education.  Mulcaster  said  in 
1581,  "For  the  elementary,  because  good  scholars  will  not  abase 
themselves  to  it,  it  is  left  to  the  meanest  and  therefore  to  the 
worst."»3 

The  Catholic  Counter-Reformation  set  great  store  by  the  spread 
of  elementary  education.  The  Council  of  Trent  ordered  parish 
schools  reopened  wherever  they  had  declined  and  offered  particular 
encouragement  to  those  religious  orders  that  had  chosen  the  ele- 
mentary school  as  the  field  of  their  endeavor.  A  new  spirit  of 
zeal  fired  the  orders  in  question  and  synods  and  councils  sought  to 
apply  the  Council's  directions.  The  Jesuits  did  not  enter  the  field 
of  the  lower  schools,  but  other  Orders,  such  as  the  Ursulines  did. 
Later  on  the  Brethren  of  the  Christian  Schools  took  the  elementary 
field  for  their  very  own,  gave  instruction  in  reading,  writing  and 
arithmetic,  and  exemplified  the  simultaneous  method,  a  great 
improvement  over  the  school  procedure  of  the  time  and  the 
foundation  of  the  modern  methods  of  school  management.^* 
These  schools,  it  goes  without  saying,  were  religious  in  character; 
yet  they  did  not  fail  on  this  account  to  provide  the  necessary 
preparation  for  practical  life.     They  are  a  further  example  of  the 

"  Watson,  F.,  English  Grammar  Schools  to  1660.     Cambridge,  1909,  p.  156. 
"  McCormick,  Patrick  J.,  The  History  of  Education,  p.  304. 


30      The  Curriculum  of  the  Catholic  Elementary  School 

Church's  educational  method  throughout  the  ages — to  seek  first 
of  all  that  which  is  the  "better  part,"  but  while  so  doing  not  to 
neglect  the  natural  means  that  were  intended  as  aids  to  salvation. 
She  prepares  her  children  for  life  in  the  world,  though  insisting 
ever  that  their  welfare  and  the  good  of  the  world,  consists  in  their 
striving  not  to  be  of  the  world. 

Meanwhile  new  currents  of  educational  thought  were  beginning 
to  run  in  men's  minds.  Humanism,  at  first  so  full  of  warm, 
human  life,  had  become  devitalized.  Formalism  enveloped  it. 
The  languages  of  the  ancients,  once  cultivated  for  their  own 
intrinsic  beauty  and  the  depths  of  human  emotion  they  expressed, 
were  now  cultivated  for  mere  verbal  reasons.  Elegant  speech 
was  sought,  not  as  a  vehicle  for  elegant  thought,  but  simply  as  a 
social  grace.  Erasmus  had  foreseen  this  eventuality  and  had 
sought  to  prevent  it.  Prophets  of  his  order  were  Rabelais, 
Mulcaster  and  Montaigne.  They  preached  the  real  purpose  of 
the  study  of  the  classics,  the  study  of  ideas.  This  is  the  move- 
ment known  to  the  history  of  education  as  Realism.  Bacon, 
Ratke  and  Comenius  carried  its  implications  to  further  conclu- 
sions. Education  is  more  than  a  training  of  the  memory.  Its 
materials  are  not  all  enclosed  within  the  covers  of  a  book.  Learn- 
ing is  founded  on  sense  perception;  every-day  experience  has  an 
educational  value;  the  object  should  be  known  prior  to  the  word. 
The  vernacular  is  no  longer  simply  tolerated,  but  comes  into  its 
own  as  a  proper  study  in  the  schools.  The  social  ills  of  the  time 
direct  men's  attention  to  education  as  a  means  of  amelioration. 
From  this  time  forward  the  social  character  of  education  is  em- 
phasized more  and  more.  All  the  knowledge  that  the  race  has 
acquired  throughout  the  ages  concerning  man  and  nature,  is  to 
become  the  common  heritage  of  all,  that  through  it  mankind  may 
be  bettered.     Plato's  philosopher  king  is  being  forced  to  abdicate.®^ 

When  the  seventeenth  century  came,  the  new  realism  had  met 
with  such  favor  from  society  and  taken  such  complete  hold  of  the 
schools  that  the  traditional  literary  and  classical  curriculum  must 
needs  find  new  grounds  to  justify  its  position.  A  new  theory  was 
formulated,  which  recognized  the  inadequacy  of  classical  training 
as  a  direct  preparation  for  practical  life,  but  which  maintained 
that  direct  preparation  is  not  educative  in  the  best  sense  of  the 
word.     The  ideal  procedure  is  to  prepare  for  life  by  indirection. 

^  Monroe,  Text-hook  in  the  History  of  Education,  p.  462. 


Discussion  of  Psychological  and  Social  Foundations    31 

This  is  accomplished  by  the  development  of  the  individual  char- 
acter and  the  building  up  of  general  habits  which  will  function  in 
any  situation.  It  is  not  the  thing  learned  that  matters,  but  the 
process  of  learning.  The  old  languages  offer  certain  difficulties 
in  the  encountering  of  which  the  mind  receives  the  best  kind  of 
training.  *' Studies  are  but,  as  it  were,  the  exercise  of  his  faculties 
and  the  employment  of  his  time;  to  keep  him  from  sauntering  and 
idleness,  to  teach  him  application  and  to  accustom  him  to  take 
pains  and  to  give  him  some  little  taste  of  what  his  own  industry 
must  perfect.  "^^ 

John  Locke,  though  his  philosophy  of  education  might  as  justly 
be  classified  with  that  of  Montaigne  or  Bacon,  or  even  in  some 
points  with  that  of  Rousseau,  is  generally  regarded  as  the  father 
of  the  theory  of  formal  discipline.  Locke  regarded  the  perfection  of 
life  as  consisting  in  the  love  of  truth,  to  attain  which  the  mind  must 
be  properly  educated.  Education  should  aim  at  vigor  of  body, 
virtue  and  knowledge.  The  first  is  to  be  obtained  by  inuring  the 
child  to  physical  hardship,  the  second  by  the  formation  of  good 
habits  and  the  discipline  of  impulse,  the  third  by  training  the  mind 
in  the  process  of  learning,  first  of  all  by  preparing  it  for  learning 
and  then  by  exercising  it  in  the  observation  of  the  logical  connec- 
tion and  association  of  ideas. *^ 

The  disciplinary  ideal  has  influenced  education  even  to  the 
present  day.  The  English  public  schools  subscribe  to  it,  it  sug- 
gests the  name  of  the  German  Gymnasia,  and  even  here  in  America, 
where  the  elective  system  has  largely  replaced  it  in  the  higher 
schools,  it  still  affects  the  elementary  school.  Only  with  the 
greatest  reluctance,  do  the  schools  admit  content  studies.  Even 
when  new  subjects  are  introduced  through  social  pressure,  school- 
men hasten  to  justify  them  on  disciplinary  grounds.^^ 

The  eighteenth  century  was  a  period  of  ferment.  On  the  one 
hand,  society,  as  represented  by  the  so-called  privileged  classes, 
was  becoming  more  and  more  artificial  and  trivial  in  its  interests. 
The  architecture  of  the  time,  with  its  redundance  of  ornament,  its 
weakness  of  design  and  its  at  times  almost  fantastic  orientation,  is 
a  significant  expression  of  the  spirit  of  the  generation.     A  life  of 

'"  Locke,  John,  Thoughts  on  Education.     Quick  Ed.,  pp.  75-76. 

*^  Ibid.,  passim. 

*'  Jessup,  W.  A.,  The  Social  Factors  Affecting  Special  Supervision  in  the 
Public  Schools  of  the  United  States.  Shows  how  disciplinary  reasons  have 
been  alleged  by  the  schools  in  justification  of  the  newer  subjects. 


32      The  Curriculum  of  the  Catholic  Elementary  School 

elegant  leisure  and  diverting  amusement  was  the  ambition  of  the 
upper  classes  and  education  was  regarded  in  the  light  of  this  ideal. 
Literature  and  art  were  cultivated  as  the  embellishments  of  life 
and  things  practical  were  despised  as  beneath  the  level  of  the 
gentleman.  On  the  other  hand,  the  lower  classes,  poor,  over- 
worked, with  little  or  no  opportunity  of  beholding  life  in  its  kindlier 
aspects,  were  becoming  sullen  and  restless.  The  feeling  that 
there  was  nothing  in  the  essential  order  of  things  which  doomed 
some  to  slave  while  others  spent  their  days  in  magnificent  idleness, 
was  becoming  more  and  more  explicit.  The  towns  established  in 
the  Middle  Ages  under  the  inspiration  of  commerce  and  improved 
methods  of  production,  fostered  the  growth  of  a  middle  class,  the 
Bourgeoisie.  This  class,  active,  resourceful,  powerful  in  business, 
was  steadily  extending  and  deepening  its  influence.  Out  of  its 
ranks  were  recruited  the  legal  profession  of  a  given  realm,  the 
lawyers  and  lesser  officials.  It  became  ambitious  for  political 
power,  until  that  time  vested  in  a  decadent  nobility,  and  stretched 
forth  its  hands  to  position  and  embellishment,  so  long  the  sacred 
heritage  of  birth  and  class. 

The  Bourgeoisie  were  interested  in  science  and  learning.  Science 
flourished  during  the  period,  and  we  behold  the  emergence  of  great 
lights  like  Newton,  Leibnitz,  Galvani,  Volta,  Lavoissier,  Caven- 
dish, Haller,  Jenner  and  Buff  on.  Encyclopedias  were  published 
and  royal  societies  and  academies  of  science  were  founded. ^^ 

The  success  which  greeted  the  human  mind  in  its  attempts  to 
solve  the  problems  of  the  physical  universe,  stimulated  it  to  in- 
quire into  the  secrets  of  social  living.  The  power  of  Reason  was 
exalted;  no  limits  were  admitted  to  the  possibility  of  its  accom- 
plishments. Divine  Revelation  and  ecclesiastical  direction  were 
regarded  with  impatience.  Rationalism  became  the  order  of  the 
day  and  a  new  philosophic  era,  the  era  of  the  Enlightenment  was 
proclaimed.  Voltaire  is  the  great  name  of  the  period,  and  he  the 
product  of  the  Bourgeoisie.  He  attacked  the  Church,  scoffed  at 
Revelation,  exalted  experimental  science  and  became  the  prophet 
of  Deism.  His  efforts  were  seconded  by  the  Encyclopedists  in 
France — the  Encyclopedia  being  "more  than  a  monument  of 
learning;  it  was  a  manifesto  of  radicalism.  Its  contributors  were 
the  apostles  of  rationalism  and  deism  and  the  criticism  of  current 

*'  Hays,  Carlton,  J.  H.,  A  Political  and  Social  History  of  Modern  Europe^ 
New  York,  1916.  Vol.  I,  pp.  413-418. 


Discussion  of  Psychological  and  Social  Foundations    33 

ideas  about  religion,  society  and  science,  won  many  disciples  to 
the  new  ideas. "^^ 

The  immediate  effect  of  the  Enlightenment  upon  the  minds  that 
came  under  its  spell,  was  a  formalism  even  colder  and  more  arti- 
ficial than  that  which  aflBicted  society  before  its  advent.  A  new 
aristocracy  developed,  an  aristocracy  of  learning,  which,  though  it 
professed  to  hold  the  key  to  a  better  order  of  things,  had  really  very 
little  sympathy  with  the  masses  and  awakened  little  enthusiasm 
in  the  heart  of  the  common  man.  The  cult  of  the  reason  degen- 
erated into  mere  cleverness  and  affectation,  a  mere  outward  seem- 
ing that  cloaked  the  meanest  selfishness  and  tolerated  the  worst 
injustice. 

On  the  other  hand  the  Enlightenment  planted  a  seed  which  in 
due  time  was  destined  to  bear  its  fruit.  The  social  correlate  of  the 
philosophy  of  the  day  was  Individualism.  Custom  and  tradition 
being  ruled  out  of  court,  the  appeal  was  made  to  the  intelligence 
of  the  individual.  Educationally  this  meant  less  insistence  on 
religion,  on  history  and  social  ethics,  and  zeal  to  build  up  virtues 
of  a  rather  abstract  quality.  This  ideal  made  itself  felt  in  the 
lower  schools  in  a  contempt  for  the  traditional  catechism  and 
primer,  an  insistence  on  the  practical  arts,  and  an  over-emphasis 
on  the  instruction  side  of  education.  This  latter  was  in  line  with 
the  doctrines  of  rationalism.  The  reason  being  all-powerful,  it 
followed  that  the  reason  should  be  cultivated  in  preference  to  the 
other  powers.     The  feeling  side  of  education  was  neglected. ^^ 

But  the  social  ills  of  the  day  were  too  real  to  be  thus  reasoned 
away.  The  people  were  demanding  relief.  Like  the  Sophists 
of  old,  the  philosophers  of  the  Enlightenment  blasted  away  the 
foundations  of  the  existing  order  without  offering  anything  con- 
structive in  its  stead.  Historically  the  result  was  the  French 
Revolution;  philosophically  and  pedagogically,  it  was  the  thought 
of  Jean  Jaques  Rousseau.  Rousseau,  the  apostle  of  Romanticism, 
detested  the  coldness  of  the  philosophers  and  proclaimed  that 
right  feeling  is  as  essential  as  right  thinking.  "Rousseau  had  seen 
and  felt  the  bitter  suffering  of  the  poor  and  he  had  perceived  the 
cynical  indifference  with  which  educated  men  often  regarded  it. 
Science  and  learning  seemed  to  have  made  men  only  more  selfish. 
He  denounced  learning  as  the  badge  of  selfishness  and  corruption, 

»o/feirf.,  p.  421. 

"  Willmann,  Otto,  Didaktik,  Band  I,  p.  349. 


34      The  Curriculum  of  the  Catholic  Elementary  School 

for  it  was  used  to  gratify  the  pride  and  childish  curiosity  of  the 
rich  rather  than  to  right  the  wrongs  of  the  poor."^^ 

Rousseau  raised  the  cry,  "Back  to  nature."  His  educational 
ideas  were  not  really  new;  they  are  implicit  in  all  the  great  educa- 
tional thought  of  all  times.  But  because  the  education  of  the 
day  had  become  so  formal  and  pedantic,  it  seemed  a  new  doctrine, 
and  enthusiasts  can  be  excused  when  they  hail  Rousseau  as  the 
"discoverer  of  the  child."  Children  should  be  allowed  to  follow 
their  natural  inclinations  and  not  forced  to  study  things  for  which 
they  have  no  love.  Practical  and  useful  subjects  are  of  greater 
import  than  Latin  and  Greek.  "Let  them  learn  what  they  must 
do  when  they  are  men,  not  what  they  must  forget.*'  The  Emile 
was  read  everywhere  and  with  enthusiasm.  "Purely  naturalistic 
and  therefore  unacceptable  to  Christians,  it  is  defective  in  purpose, 
having  only  temporal  existence  in  view;  it  is  one-sided,  accepting 
only  the  utilitarian  and  neglecting  the  aesthetic,  cultural  and 
moral.  Among  so  much  error  there  was  nevertheless  some  truth. 
Rousseau,  like  Comenius,  called  attention  to  the  study  of  the  child, 
his  natural  abilities  and  tastes,  and  the  necessity  of  accommodating 
instruction  and  training  to  him  and  of  awaiting  natural  develop- 
ment. His  criticism  served  many  useful  purposes  and  in  spite  of 
his  chicanery  and  paradoxes  many  of  his  views  were  successfully 
applied  by  Basedow,  Pestalozzi  and  other  modern  educators.  "^^ 

The  men  who  followed  Rousseau  may  or  may  not  have  been 
aware  of  his  influence.  No  doubt  he  was  but  the  spokesman  of  a 
conviction  that  was  general  and  which  would  have  worked  itself 
out  even  if  he  had  never  raised  his  voice.  The  tremendous  social 
changes  of  the  time  and  the  new  doctrine  of  human  rights  that  had 
become  prevalent,  called  for  a  reform  in  the  world  of  the  school. 
Again,  it  was  but  natural  that  science  should  discover  that  mental 
processes  like  other  phenomena  are  subject  to  the  reign  of  law. 
Henceforth  we  find  education  more  concerned  with  its  starting 
point  than  its  completion.  No  longer  is  it  the  ideal  of  the  gentle- 
man, his  mind  well  stocked  with  approved  knowledge,  his  manner 
perfect,  that  predominates;  the  child  with  his  unfolding  powers, 
holds  the  center  of  the  stage.  Pestalozzi,  on  the  theory  that 
education  is  growth  from  within  stimulated  by  the  study  of  objects 
rather  than  symbols,  sought  by  object  study  to  awaken  in  the 

92  Hayes,  Carlton,  J.  H.,  A  Political  and  Social  History  of  Modern  Europe, 
Vol.  I,  p.  423. 

93  McCormick,  Patrick  J.,  History  of  Education,  p.  318. 


Discussion  of  Psychological  and  Social  Foundations    35 

child  perception  of  his  environment.  Herbart  goes  further,  and 
shows  how  Pestalozzi's  precepts  are  not  sufficient,  that  object 
study  arrives  nowhere  unless  ideas  are  elaborated.  Pestalozzi's 
method  is  but  the  beginning;  it  presents  to  the  child  the  world  of 
sense.  But  the  real  end  of  education  is  virtue,  and  this  is  to  be 
achieved  by  presenting  to  the  child  in  addition  to  the  world  of 
sense,  the  world  of  morals.  The  presentations  of  sense  must  be 
worked  over  by  the  mind,  assimilated  and  elaborated  into  ideas 
and  judgments  which  finally  produce  action.^*  Instruction  must 
so  proceed  that  idea  leads  to  idea;  this  is  accomplished  by  means  of 
apperception.  Interest  must  be  aroused  that  will  become  part  of 
the  child's  very  being  and  which  will  consequently  direct  his 
conduct. 

Herbart  made  instruction  the  chief  aim  of  education  on  the 
assumption  that  knowledge  is  virtue.  Friedrich  Froebel,  with 
keener  insight  into  child  psychology,  emphasized  the  importance 
of  guiding  the  child  in  his  own  spontaneous  activity.  Learning  is 
an  active  process. ^^  Expression  must  be  stimulated.  The  mate- 
rials of  education  must  be  drawn  from  life  as  it  now  is,  for  we  best 
prepare  for  life  by  living. 

Under  this  new  inspiration,  the  school  becomes  a  place  for 
activity  and  not  mere  passive  listening.  The  play  of  children  is 
studied  and  its  educational  value  noted.  Handwork  becomes  an 
important  instrument  for  exercising  creative  ability;  nature  study 
is  cultivated  as  a  source  of  natural  interest  and  because  it  affords 
opportunity  for  activity. 

The  nineteenth  century  was  scientific  in  character;  hence  it  was 
but  natural  that  the  scientific  element  should  seek  entrance  into 
the  schools.  There  was  a  long  and  bitter  controversy  between  the 
advocates  of  science  and  the  defenders  of  the  old  classical  ideal  of 
a  liberal  education.  In  the  end  a  new  ideal  of  liberal  education 
developed,  placing  value  on  everything  that  could  make  a  man 
a  worthier  member  of  society.  Science  could  not  be  left  out  of 
such  a  scheme,  and  chiefly  through  the  influence  of  Herbert 
Spencer  and  his  doctrine  of  education  for  complete  living,'^  the 
claims  of  the  new  discipline  were  finally  recognized. 

•*  Herbart,  John  Frederick,  Outlines  of  Educational  Doctrine.  Translated 
by  Alexis  F.  Lange.     New  York,  1901.  Ch.  III. 

•*  Froebel,  Friederich,  The  Education  of  Man.  Translated  by  W.  N.  Hail- 
mann.     New  York,  1906,  p.  8. 

••  Spencer,  Herbert,  Education — Intellectual,  Moral  and  Physical.  New 
York,  1895,  p.  30. 


36      The  Curriculum  of  the  Catholic  Elementary  School 

From  this  cursory  summary  we  see  how  educational  ideals 
change  from  age  to  age  to  meet  the  change  in  social  conditions.  The 
prophets  of  the  day  generally  turn  to  the  school  as  a  means  of 
propagating  their  doctrine  for  they  realize  that  their  hope  lies  in 
the  plastic  mind  of  the  child  rather  than  in  the  formed  and  pre- 
judiced intellect  of  the  adult.  It  is  no  easy  matter  to  prepare  the 
soil  when  deeply  imbedded  rocks  of  conviction  and  the  stubborn, 
tangled  under-brush  of  habit  and  custom  must  first  be  cleared 
away.  The  mind  of  the  child  is  a  virgin  soil  which  welcomes  the 
seed  and  nurtures  it  to  fruitfulness. 

However  it  would  be  wrong  to  say  that  the  schools  of  a  particu- 
lar age  always  respond  to  contemporary  social  ideals  and  needs. 
The  education  of  primitive  groups  is  immediate  and  direct,  but 
when  education  becomes  formal  it  tends  to  become  conservative. 
Education  as  an  institution  exhibits  the  same  suspicion  of  change 
that  is  characteristic  of  other  institutions.  It  guards  jealously  the 
heritage  of  the  past  and  is  slow  to  approve  the  culture  of  the  pres- 
ent. Though  the  Sophists  scoffed  at  the  religious  and  social  foun- 
dations of  ancient  Greece,  the  schools  continued  to  extol  them 
because  they  at  least  afforded  some  positive  sanction  for  public 
morality.  The  ideal  of  the  orator  dominated  Roman  education 
long  after  the  function  of  the  orator  had  lapsed  into  desuetude- 
Scholasticism  waned  in  influence  because  it  failed  to  take  proper 
cognizance  of  the  social  and  intellectual  changes  that  preceded 
the  Renaissance.  The  later  humanists  saw  in  the  classics  only  an 
exercise  in  verbal  intricacies.  It  is  interesting  to  note  that  when 
civilization  reaches  a  certain  degree  of  culture,  formalism  usually 
eventuates,  for  the  reason  that  culture  tends  to  become  abstract 
and  divorced  from  reality.  The  school  accentuates  this  condition 
and  heeds  the  claims  of  the  symbol  rather  than  the  thing,  of  the 
book  rather  than  life. 

The  result  is  that  the  boon  of  education  comes  to  be  denied  all 
but  the  favored  few.  Class  distinction  is  born  and  the  evils  of  priv- 
ilege and  oppression  make  their  appearance.  When  reaction  sets  in 
reformers  demand  a  more  real  and  universal  education.  Mon- 
taigne, Locke,  Rousseau,  Pestalozzi,  Froebel,  and  in  our  own  day 
John  Dewey,  have  regarded  education  as  a  means  to  social  better- 
ment. The  same  was  true  in  other  days  of  the  work  of  John  Bap- 
tist de  la  Salle.  But  the  doctrines  of  men  of  this  type  do  not  as  a 
rule  affect  contemporary  practice,  except  in  the  case  where  they 


Discussion  of  Psychological  and  Social  Foundations    37 

found  schools  of  their  own  for  the  purpose  of  exemplyifying  their 
ideas.  Even  then  the  results  are  merely  local.  The  schools  of 
tomorrow  apply  the  doctrines  of  the  schoolmen  of  today. 

Now  it  would  be  ideal  if  the  schools  of  each  succeeding  age 
were  to  adjust  the  individual  perfectly  to  his  present  environ- 
ment. But  this  would  imply  that  society  at  any  given  time  be 
self-conscious.  It  must  know  its  own  characteristics,  its  ideals,  the 
function  of  its  institutions  and  its  means  of  control.  It  goes 
without  saying  that  society  in  the  past  has  not  possessed  such 
knowledge.  It  is  only  in  comparatively  recent  times  that  experi- 
mental science  has  turned  its  attention  toward  social  organiza- 
tion; scientific  sociology  is  as  yet  in  the  infant  stage.  The  study 
of  the  past,  shows  us  how  certain  institutions  and  forces  have 
operated  for  the  maintenance  of  order  and  the  building  up  of  social 
organization.  But  at  the  time  it  was  the  method  of  trial  and  error 
rather  than  a  conscious  ideal  of  procedure  that  was  followed. 
The  point  of  departure  was  the  individual  rather  than  the  group. 

Today,  with  the  advance  of  the  social  sciences,  the  objective 
point  of  view  is  extolled  over  the  subjective.  Ways  and  means 
are  being  studied  to  control  the  group  directly  instead  of  indirectly 
by  means  of  metaphysics  and  psychology. ^^  Education  is  listed 
among  the  means  of  control.  The  school  is  no  longer  to  be  con- 
sidered a  philanthropic  enterprise  for  rescuing  the  individual  from 
the  unfriendly  forces  that  abound  in  his  environment,  but  as  a  social 
instrument  for  fostering  group  ideals  and  insuring  group  progress. 
Education  is  made  universal  and  compulsory  because  ignorance 
is  a  social  danger  that  must  be  eliminated  for  the  good  of  society.'*^ 

This  new  conception  of  education  as  social  control  has  tremen- 
dous possibilities  for  good  or  evil.  The  norm  of  control  must  be 
true  and  valid;  if  it  is  nothing  more  than  mere  expediency,  the 
results  will  be  disastrous.  Moreover  there  must  be  a  deep  insight 
into  social  forces  and  phenomena.     His  philosophy  affords  the 

"^  Bernard,  Luther  Lee,  The  Transition  to  an  Objective  Standard  of  Social 
Control.     Chicago,  1911,  p.  92. 

•*  Ross,  Edward  Alsworth,  Social  Control,  A  Survey  of  the  Foundations 
of  Order.  New  York,  1901,  p.  163.  Ross  charges  that  the  Church  was  in  the 
beginning  too  much  interested  in  "soul-saving"  to  give  much  attention  to  the 
welfare  of  society.  He  fails  to  understand  that  the  Church's  zeal  for  the  salva- 
tion of  the  individual  soul  resulted  in  a  complete  subversal  of  the  old  pagan 
ideals  of  life  that  had  produced  such  corruption,  oppression  of  the  weak  by 
the  strong  and  caused  the  decay  of  society.  The  educational  activities  of  the 
early  Church  afford  a  splendid  instance  of  the  power  of  the  school  to  change 
the  environment,  to  control  the  group. 


38      The  Curriculum  of  the  Catholic  Elementary  School 

Catholic  educator  a  knowledge  of  the  necessary  fundamental  prin- 
ciples which  he  must  follow.  These  are  to  be  interpreted  in  the 
light  of  present  conditions.  The  school  must  answer  the  needs  of 
the  time.  A  knowledge  of  present  social  conditions  is  absolutely 
imperative  for  the  formulation  of  a  curriculum;  otherwise  the 
school  will  fail  of  its  mission.  This  aspect  of  the  relation  of 
subject-matter  to  society  will  be  considered  in  the  following 
chapter. 


CHAPTER  III 

SUBJECT-MATTER   AND    SOCIETY THE    PRESENT 

The  first  thing  to  be  borne  in  mind  concerning  modern  society 
is  its  industrial  character.  This  fact  differentiates  it  sharply  from 
any  civilization  of  the  past.  Industrialism  is  the  cause  of  what  is 
known  as  modern  progress;  it  is  the  condition  of  modern  social 
organization,  the  source  of  modern  social  ills.  To  leave  it  out  of 
one's  consideration,  is  to  labor  and  strive  in  vain  for  the  better- 
ment of  society.  It  is  the  raw  material  of  all  social  advancement. 
It  cannot  be  waved  aside  and  finally  disposed  of,  by  merely  longing 
for  the  '*good,  old  days,"  when  there  were  no  machines,  no  factories, 
when  cities  were  not  squalid  and  enveloped  in  a  pall  of  smoke, 
when  laborers  were  not  the  begrimed  slaves  of  steel  and  iron. 
The  machine  cannot  be  evicted  from  our  midst  and  any  plan  of 
combating  the  evil  conditions  and  tendencies  of  the  hour  must 
reckon  with  it. 

In  the  beginning  the  divine  commission  was  given  to  man  to 
"increase  and  multiply  and  fill  the  earth  and  subdue  it.""^  In 
pursuance  of  this  command,  man  set  forth  to  conquer  his  physical 
environment  and  all  the  activities  and  means  which  he  has  em- 
ployed in  this  process,  we  may  call  industrial,  and  the  story  of 
their  development,  industrial  history.  The  term  industrial  covers 
all  "those  activities  of  mankind  which  aim  at  practical  control  and 
utilization  of  the  materials  and  forces  of  non-human  nature. "^'^'^ 
Such  control  and  utilization  is  attempted  by  man  for  the  supplying 
of  his  material,  physical  needs,  his  need  for  food,  for  shelter,  for 
clothing,  for  means  of  putting  himself  on  record,  for  utensils,  tools, 
machines  and  weapons. 

Man  had  not  greatly  improved  his  industrial  methods  prior  to 
the  nineteenth  century.  Seed  was  sown  as  in  the  days  when  the 
"sower  went  forth  to  sow,"  upon  ground  that  had  been  turned  up 
with  a  wooden  plow.  Pack  horses  toiled  over  poorly  constructed 
roads  bearing  commodities  to  market  and  ships  at  sea  were  at  the 
mercy  of  uncertain  winds.  Shoes  and  clothing  were  made  in  the 
home.     Books    were   fashioned    laboriously,    and    being   few   in 


•»  Genesis,  Ch.  I,  v.  28. 

^°''  Parker,   Samuel    Chester,    Industrial   Development   and   Social   Progress. 
National  Educational  Association  Proceedings,  1908,  p.  758. 

S9 


40      The  Curriculum  of  the  Catholic  Elementary  School 

number,  were  the  prized  possession  of  the  eHte.  The  introduction 
of  gun-powder  had  changed  the  methods  of  warfare  materially, 
though  the  sword  and  the  lance  continued  to  decide  the  fortunes 
of  battle.  Industry  was  still  a  domestic  interest,  even  in  the  cities 
which  had  been  developing  and  becoming  the  centers  of  trade  and 
commerce.^^^ 

Then  came  the  Industrial  Revolution.  Its  advent  was  not  for- 
tuitous, since  preparation  for  it  had  been  going  on  for  some  time. 
Back  in  the  eleventh  century,  there  had  been  a  renewal  of  trade 
relations  between  the  East  and  the  West.  This  trade,  so  brisk 
and  important  in  the  days  of  the  Romans,  had  been  interrupted 
by  the  barbarian  invasions  and  the  Mohammedan  wars.  In  the 
tenth  century,  a  number  of  Italian  towns  began  to  interest  them- 
selves in  a  revival  of  Eastern  trades.  Brindisi,  Bari,  Amalfi, 
Venice,  Genoa  and  Pisa  fitted  out  ships  and  sent  them  to  the  eastern 
shores  of  the  Mediterranean.  1^2  xhe  Crusades  (1095-1270) 
stimulated  this  commerce.  They  awakened  an  interest  in  the 
East  and  its  products.  Eastern  spices  were  in  great  demand,  as 
well  as  the  precious  stones,  the  delicately  wrought  wares  and  rich 
ornaments  that  characterized  Eastern  culture.  Great  trade 
routes  were  developed,  one  down  the  valley  of  the  Tigris,  another 
by  the  Red  Sea,  and  a  northern  route  from  India  and  China  to 
the  Black  Sea.  Venice  and  the  Hanseatic  League  controlled  the 
major  portion  of  this  commerce.  Under  their  hegemony,  pirates 
were  combated,  treaties  concluded  with  oriental  potentates  and 
internal  trade  in  Western  Europe  facilitated. 

It  was  at  this  time  that  the  Spaniards  and  Portuguese  began  to 
dream  of  direct  trade  with  the  East.  The  taste  for  things  oriental 
which  had  developed  in  these  countries  could  only  be  satisfied  by 
paying  the  exorbitant  prices  demanded  by  the  more  conveniently 
located  Italian  cities.  A  direct  trade  route  with  India  became  the 
ambition  of  these  nations  and  intrepid  explorers  went  forth  in 
search  of  an  all-water  way  to  the  East.  Prince  Henry,  the  Navi- 
gator, Denis  Diaz,  Vasco  da  Gama,  Christopher  Columbus,  are  the 
great  names  of  the  time.  Their  discoveries  inaugurated  the  Com- 
mercial Revolution  of  the  sixteenth  century. ^*^^ 


^°^  Hayes,  Carlton,  J.  H.,  A  Political  and  Social  History  of  Modern  Europe, 
Vol.  II,  p.  49. 
102  Ibid.,  p.  44. 
iM  Ibid.,  pp.  51-54. 


Discussion  of  Psychological  and  Social  Foundations    41 

A  national  commercial  consciousness  took  hold  of  the  peoples  of 
Em-ope.  The  wealth  of  his  nation  became  the  ruler's  ambition. 
Colonial  trade  was  developed  because  it  was  felt  that  gold  would 
flow  into  the  national  coffers  from  a  favorable  exchange  of  costly 
manufactures  for  cheap  raw  material.  The  new  conditions  of 
trade  called  for  new  financial  methods.  Up  to  the  time  of  the 
Crusades,  a  natural  economy  had  persisted.  In  the  Middle  Ages, 
individuals  and  families  supplied  the  sinews  of  business.  But 
with  the  expansion  of  trade,  the  need  of  building  great  fleets  of 
merchantmen  and  the  establishment  of  military  defenses,  a  money 
economy  came  into  existence.  Funds  of  money  were  in  demand, 
rather  than  stores  of  supplies.  A  fluid  credit  was  necessary,  and 
with  the  opportunity  for  profitable  investment  in  the  newly  dis- 
covered lands,  capital  was  born.^^  It  brought  its  evils  as  well  as 
its  benefits,  but  it  did  go  far  toward  establishing  a  new  order  of 
things.  It  affected  military  organization  by  making  mercenary 
armies  possible;  it  changed  the  status  of  labor  by  breaking  down 
the  astriction  of  serf  to  soil  and  by  freeing  the  laborer  from  the 
limitations  set  by  the  guilds;  it  paved  the  way  for  the  introduction 
of  machinery  at  the  end  of  the  eighteenth  century. 

Industrial  development  characterized  European  history  in  the 
eighteenth  century.  In  spite  of  the  dynastic  and  colonial  wars  of 
the  period,  trade  between  the  nations  had  thrived.  The  fairs  and 
markets  of  the  Middle  Ages  were  losing  their  importance  according 
as  overseas  trade  became  freer.  Means  of  transportation  were 
improved  and  there  was  great  activity  in  the  building  of  roads, 
canals  and  inland  waterways. ^°^ 

Then  came  the  great  mechanical  inventions.  Their  birth-place 
was  England.  Holland  had  been  gradually  losing  her  commercial 
supremacy,  while  over-centralization  of  authority  in  France  was 
paralyzing  the  initiative  of  that  people  and  emasculating  their 
industry  and  business.  England  profited  by  both  of  these  facts 
and  found  herself  called  upon  to  supply  a  world-wide  trade.  The 
East  looked  to  her  for  cotton  cloth  whilst  the  Continent  and 
North  America  were  clamoring  for  woolen  goods.  An  unrestricted 
market  was  open  to  her.  Moreover,  the  mines  of  the  New  World 
and  the  trade  with  the  East  had  built  up  a  great  supply  of  capital 

'**  Cunningham,    W.,   An   Essay  on    Western   Civilization  in  its   Economic 
Aspects.     (Medieval  and  Modern  Times.)     Cambridge,  1910,  p.  162. 
i»  The  Cambridge  Modern  History.     New  York,  1911,  Vol.  X,  p.  728. 


42      The  Curriculum  of  the  Catholic  Elementary  School 

in  England  so  that  London  of  the  eighteenth  century  was  the  mone- 
tary center  of  the  world.  This  fact  is  of  importance,  since  with  a 
plenteous  supply  of  capital,  inventors  could  obtain  the  where- 
withal to  prosecute  their  experiments.^*^® 

The  first  inventions  took  place  in  the  textile  industries.  John 
Kay's  "flying  shuttle"  made  it  possible  for  weavers  to  work  more 
rapidly  and  they  required  more  thread  than  the  old  hand-operated 
spinning  wheels  could  supply.  In  1770  James  Hargreaves  patented 
a  ''spinning  jenny"  by  means  of  which  one  person  could  spin  eight 
threads  at  the  same  time.  In  1769  Richard  Arkwright  invented  a 
water  frame  by  which  water  power  was  utilized  in  spinning.  Sam- 
uel Crompton,  in  1779,  combined  features  of  the  spinning  jenny 
and  the  water  frame  and  produced  his  spinning  "mule"  which 
made  fine  thread  much  more  rapidly  than  had  been  possible  before. 

The  spinners  were  now  supplying  more  thread  than  the  weavers 
could  take  care  of.  To  meet  this  exigency,  Edmund  Cartwright, 
in  1785,  constructed  the  power  loom,  three  of  which  could  do  the 
work  of  four  hand  weavers.  In  1792,  an  American,  Eli  Whitney, 
invented  his  cotton  gin  for  the  purpose  of  picking  the  seeds  out  of 
raw  cotton.  All  of  these  inventions  underwent  successive  im- 
provements. 

It  soon  became  apparent  that  water  power  would  be  inadequate 
to  meet  the  new  demands  of  industry.  A  new  motive  power  must 
be  discovered  and  the  result  was  the  steam  engine.  This  invention 
in  turn  stimulated  the  iron  industry.  New  methods  of  smelting 
iron  ore  were  developed.  Blast  furnaces  made  their  appearance, 
foundries  were  established  and  iron  came  into  use  in  a  wide  range 
of  industries.  Since  coal  was  used  in  connection  with  the  new 
engines,  there  naturally  came  about  a  great  improvement  in  mining 
methods.107 

The  awakening  of  industry  affected  the  means  of  transportation. 
Great  facilities  were  needed  to  care  for  the  coal  and  iron  used  in 
the  new  industries.  Though  there  had  been  numerous  im- 
provements in  road  making,  many  of  the  roads  were  still  poorly 
laid  and  new  canals  had  not  been  completed.  Under  stress  of  this 
new  necessity,  the  railroad  and  the  steamship  were  born.     In  the 


^^  Cunningham,  W.,  An  Essay  on  Western  Civilization  in  its  Economic 
Aspects  (Medieval  and  Modern  Times),  p.  225. 

^°^  The  Cambridge  Modern  History,  Vol.  X,  p.  735ss.  Also  Hayes,  Carlton, 
J.  H.,  A  Political  and  Social  History  of  Modern  Europe,  Vol.  II,  pp.  70-75. 


Discussion  of  Psychological  and  Social  Foundations    43 

beginning  the  cars  were  run  on  rails  and  pulled  by  horses,  but  the 
locomotive  soon  made  its  appearance.  In  1785,  George  Stephen- 
son turned  out  a  locomotive  capable  of  drawing  ninety  tons  at  a 
speed  of  twelve  miles  an  hour. 

The  evolution  of  industry  aifected  agriculture  in  two  ways. 
First,  the  breaking  up  of  the  domestic  system  divorced  agriculture 
and  industry.  The  weavers  and  cloth-makers  who  had  always 
engaged  in  some  agricultural  work,  now  migrated  to  the  great 
manufacturing  centers  and  farmers  came  to  be  exclusively  occu- 
pied with  the  soil.^^^  The  development  of  the  means  of  transpor- 
tation made  distant  markets  accessible  and  with  increased  de- 
mands, methods  were  improved.  The  old  system  of  common  field 
husbandry  declined  and  rotation  of  crops  superseded  the  fallow 
field.  A  more  intelligent  use  was  made  of  natural  manures  and  the 
advantages  of  artificial  fertilizers  was  recognized.  The  use  of  the 
new  modelled  plow  and  farm  machinery  became  general  and  the 
threshing  machine  replaced  the  flail.  Scientific  agriculture  was 
entering  the  lists  against  the  traditional  methods  which  were  the 
result  largely  of  trial  and  error  and  which  custom  had  sanctified. ^^® 

Moreover,  the  system  of  the  enclosure  of  land,  intended  to  make 
each  farmer  the  owner  of  his  own  land  which  he  might  work  to 
suit  his  own  pleasure,  resulted  disastrously  in  many  cases.  Small 
farmers  found  difficulty  in  meeting  their  expenses  and  the  need  of 
consolidation  became  more  and  more  apparent.  As  a  consequence, 
we  note  the  rise  of  the  capitalistic  farmer  and  the  appearance  of 
farm  labor.  ^^"^ 

A  corresponding  change  took  place  in  the  professional  world. 
Mechanical  engineering  became  the  basis  of  the  new  industry. 
Machines  must  be  constructed  to  make  machines.  The  field  of 
applied  science  invites  the  ambition  of  young  men.  The  adventure 
that  is  the  life  of  the  engineer,  stimulates  their  imagination. 
A  new  profession  arises. 

From  these  beginnings  came  all  the  tremendous  developments  of 
contemporary  industry.  Only  one  well  versed  in  the  science  of 
engineering  can  adequately  describe  the  changes  that  have  been 
brought  about  in  man's  methods  of  subduing  the  earth.  Invention 

^'^^  Gibbins,  Henry  de  Beltgens,  Economic  and  Industrial  Progress  of  the 
Century.     London,  1903,  p.  12. 

»»«  The  Cambridge  Modern  History,  Vol.  X.,  p.  741. 

"°  Cunningham,  W.,  An  Essay  on  Western  Civilization  in  its  Economic 
Aspects  (Medieval  and  Modern  Times),  p.  234. 


44      The  Curriculum  of  the  Catholic  Elementary  School 

suggested  invention,  steam  opened  the  way  for  electricity  and  the 
end  is  not  yet.  New  fields  of  science  have  been  opened  up.  Chemi- 
cal engineering,  metallurgical  chemistry,  structural  and  electrical 
engineering  are  new  worlds  that  invite  the  human  mind  to  conquest. 
The  wildest  dreams  of  yesterday  are  the  commonplaces  of  today. 

Naturally,  the  Industrial  Revolution  wrought  great  changes  in 
the  conditions  of  human  life.  The  ancient  unit  of  economic 
organization,  the  home,  was  the  first  to  feel  them.  Industry 
centered  in  the  cities  where  it  had  ready  access  to  transportation 
facilities;  this  meant  an  easy  flow  of  raw  materials  and  finished 
products.  The  worker  was  consequently  under  necessity  of  follow- 
ing its  lead  5  he  must  migrate  to  the  city  and  settle  down  in  the 
shadow  of  the  factory.  Cities  grew  and  expanded  in  marvelous 
fashion.  Of  course,  the  beginnings  of  city  life  antedated  the 
Industrial  Revolution  by  many  centuries.  In  the  tenth  century, 
Henry  I,  of  Germany,  set  up  fortified  places  where  one  out  of  every 
four  peasants  was  to  dwell  and  store  up  a  portion  of  the  annual 
harvest  for  the  common  good.  Throughout  the  Middle  Ages, 
the  cities  were  centers  of  intellectual  and  political  activity  as  well 
as  the  homes  of  commerce  and  industry.  They  were  likewise  the 
refuge  of  the  oppressed  and  the  home  of  all  laborers  not  im- 
mediately attached  to  the  soil.^^^  But  with  the  advent  of  the 
machine,  the  city  assumed  a  new  role  in  economic  organization. 
There  business  and  industry  concentrated  and  there  the  laborer 
must  live  and  devote  himself  exclusively  to  the  interests  of  his 
vocation,  if  he  hoped  to  survive  under  the  new  order  of  things. 

There  was  likewise  a  change  in  the  relations  between  employer 
and  laborer.  Under  the  old  system,  labor  was  a  personal  and 
individual  matter.  The  cobbler  worked  in  his  own  home  and 
turned  out  a  finished  product  for  which  he  received  return  largely 
in  kind.     There  was  little  intervention  on  the  part  of  a  middleman. 

Even  before  the  Industrial  Revolution,  this  arrangement  was 
beginning  to  break  up.  Wealthy  masterworkers  hired  numbers 
of  journeymen  to  do  the  work,  whilst  they  concerned  themselves 
with  matters  of  trade  and  in  finding  advantageous  markets.  A 
number  of  looms,  for  example,  would  be  gathered  under  the 
master's  roof,  and  men  would  be  hired  to  work  at  them  for  wages. 
This  was  the  beginning  of  the  separation  of  capital  and  labor 

"^  Robinson,  J.  H.,  and  Beard,  C.  A.,  Readings  in  Modem  European  History. 
New  York,  Vol.  I.  Chapter  XVII. 


Discussion  of  Psychological  and  Social  Foundations    45 

and  the  breaking  up  of  the  sense  of  mutual  cooperation  and 
dependence.  ^^^ 

The  introduction  of  the  machine  completed  this  separation. 
The  center  of  industry  became  the  factory,  wherein  men  were 
employed  by  the  hundreds  to  labor  day  after  day  for  a  stated 
return  in  money.  As  the  capitalistic  system  grew,  the  relations 
between  laborer  and  employer  became  more  and  more  impersonal, 
for  the  demands  of  trade  and  finance  made  it  impossible  for  the 
employer  to  pay  attention  to  the  detailed  supervision  of  his  work- 
men and  called  for  a  change  in  the  methods  of  organization.  The 
capitalist  became  the  promoter,  the  general  supervisor,  the  expert 
in  the  arts  of  business.  He  chose  subordinates,  fitted  for  the  task 
because  of  their  technical  knowledge,  to  watch  over  the  details 
of  production.  Gradually,  the  capitalist  became  content  to  invest 
his  money  and  scrutinize  the  returns  and  not  to  concern  himself 
more  deeply  in  the  business  as  long  as  his  income  increased  and  he 
had  plenty  of  time  and  means  for  enjoyment  and  leisure. 

The  wage-earner,  on  the  other  hand,  tended  to  become  more  and 
more  dependent — a  mere  cog  in  the  machine.  This  was  especially 
true,  when  specialization  became  the  order  in  industry.  Men 
labored  all  day  long  at  uninteresting  mechanical  tasks,  their  imagi- 
nation stifled  and  their  pittance  meager.  The  adventure  of  pro- 
ductive labor  was  lost;  the  impulse  to  create,  thwarted.^ ^'     Em- 


"^  Hayes,  Carlton,  J.  H.,  A  Political  and  Social  History  of  Modern  Europe, 
Vol.  II,  p.  77. 

"'  Marot,  Helen,  Creative  Impulse  in  Industry.     New  York,  1918,  p.  7. 

Thorsten  Veblen  in  his  Theory  of  the  Leisure  Class  (New  York,  1902,  p.  329), 
notes  the  tendency  of  modern  industrial  processes  to  render  the  workman 
skeptical  and  materialistic.  Changes  in  industrial  methods  have  operated 
to  change  the  whole  mode  of  thought  and  the  intellectual  outlook  of  the  men 
engaged  in  them.  His  standards  of  thinking  even  on  topics  outside  the  range 
of  his  daily  work  are  aflFected  by  the  conditions  under  which  he  must  labor. 
"Familiarity  with  the  highly  organized  and  highly  impersonal  industrial 
processes  of  the  present  acts  to  derange  the  animistic  habits  of  thought. 
The  workman's  office  is  becoming  more  and  more  exclusively  that  of  direction 
and  supervision  in  a  process  of  mechanical,  dispassionate  sequences.  So  long 
as  the  individual  is  the  chief  and  typical  prime  mover  in  the  process;  so  long 
as  the  unobtrusive  feature  of  the  industrial  process  is  the  dexterity  and  force 
of  the  individual  handicraftsman;  so  long  the  habit  of  interpreting  phenomena 
in  terms  of  personal  motive  and  propensity  suffers  no  such  considerable  and 
consistent  derangement  through  facts  as  to  lead  to  its  elimination.  But 
under  the  later  developed  industrial  processes,  when  the  prime  movers  and  the 
contrivances  through  which  they  work  are  of  an  impersonal,  non-individual 
character,  the  grounds  of  generalization  habitually  present  in  the  workman's 
mind  and  the  point  of  view  from  which  he  habitually  apprehends  phenomena 
is  an  enforced  cognizance  of  matter-of-fact  sequence.  The  result,  so  far  as 
affects  the  workman's  life  of  faith,  is  a  proclivity  to  undevout  skepticism." 


46      The  Curriculum  of  the  Catholic  Elementary  School 

ployment  became  a  precarious  afiFair.  Markets  were  unstable, 
over-production  resulted  in  closing  down  of  the  factory  and  there 
was  nowhere  to  turn  for  work.  The  laborer  began  to  feel  himself 
the  creature  of  industrial  circumstance. 

The  family  ceased  to  be  the  industrial  unit.  Every  individual, 
whether  man,  woman  or  child,  became  a  potential  worker.  Mother 
and  daughter  left  the  shelter  of  the  home  to  toil  shoulder  to 
shoulder  with  father  and  son  in  the  shops  and  factories. 

Thus  the  Industrial  Revolution,  while  it  served  to  enlarge  the 
social  environment  and  to  increase  the  sum  total  of  all  those  influ- 
ences which  enrich  the  life  of  the  individual,  nevertheless,  because 
of  specialization  in  industry  and  dependency  for  employment, 
succeeded  in  confining  the  lives  of  the  great  majority  of  people 
within  very  narrow  grooves. ^^^  Thus  was  reversed  the  old  order, 
under  which  the  worker  lived  in  a  circumscribed  environment, 
with  few  needs  and  just  as  few  means  of  satisfying  them,  yet,  far 
from  being  the  slave  of  a  machine  and  a  creature  of  circumstance, 
was  the  master  of  many  crafts. 

It  would  be  beside  our  purpose  here  to  dilate  on  the  social  ills 
that  have  resulted  from  the  Industrial  Revolution.  The  change 
had  come  too  rapidly  for  adjustment.  Men  were  too  much 
absorbed  in  the  wonders  they  were  working  in  the  realm  of  the 
physical,  to  pay  much  heed  to  the  harm  that  was  being  wrought 
in  the  social  order. 

Yet,  even  from  the  beginning  there  were  men  with  vision  who  saw 
the  problem  and  addressed  themselves  to  its  solution.  The  first 
impulse  was  to  make  laws  in  restraint  of  industry.  But  such  laws 
hampered  trade  and  because  of  them  the  principle  of  *iaissez 
faire"  was  enunciated.  Adam  Smith  was  the  apostle  of  this 
doctrine.  In  his  "Wealth  of  Nations,"  published  in  1776,  he  at- 
tempted to  prove  that  restrictions  are  useless  because  they  inter- 
fere with  a  man's  freedom  to  become  rich.  Now,  inasmuch  as 
the  true  strength  of  a  nation  lies  in  the  wealth  of  its  citizens,  such 
interference  is  disastrous. ^^^  The  doctrine  was  seized  upon  with 
avidity  by  the  capitalists  and  it  suggested  such  other  theories  as 
that  of  **enlightened  self-interest,"  according  to  which  each  man 
should  look  to  himself  and  let  others  do  likewise,  for  "private 
interest  is  the  source  of  public  good."     Laws  are  bound  to  fail 

"*  Carlton,  Frank  Tracy,  The  Industrial  Situation.     New  York,  1914,  p.  17» 
*^*  Cambridge  Modern  History,  Vol.  X,  p.  763. 


Discussion  of  Psychological  and  Social  Foundations    47 

because  misery,  vice  and  suffering  are  due  not  to  controllable 
agencies  but  to  the  inexorable  laws  of  sound  political  economy. *^^ 

Meanwhile,  labor  had  not  been  inactive.  Its  platform  was 
diametrically  opposed  to  the  individualism  of  the  exponents  of 
**laissez  faire,"  and  looked  to  the  group  rather  than  to  the  indi- 
vidual for  control.  Utopian  schemes  were  advanced  to  flourish  for 
a  day  and  then  die.^^^  All  were  too  radical  to  stand  the  searching 
test  of  reality;  they  seemed  to  strike  at  the  roots  of  accepted 
morality  and  threaten  the  very  basis  of  civilization. 

They  did  serve  a  purpose,  however,  in  bringing  society  to  a 
realization  of  existing  ills.  They  threw  the  doctrine  of  "laissez 
faire"  into  disrepute  and  called  the  workingraen  to  unite.  Trades 
unionism  developed  and  has  done  its  share  toward  defending  the 
interests  of  labor  in  the  perilous  times  of  reconstruction. 

Marxian  Socialism  was  proclaimed  in  1848  and  has  been  a  signi- 
ficant factor  in  the  political  and  social  world  ever  since.  It  seemed 
admirably  calculated  to  answer  the  needs  and  aspirations  of  the 
masses.  The  prevalent  discontent  was  directed  to  political  chan- 
nels. A  solution  was  offered  which  seemed  tangible  and  real  in 
comparison  with  the  Utopian  schemes  that  had  preceded.  Social- 
ism has  found  its  best  exemplification  as  a  political  force  in  the 
Social  Democrat  Party  of  Germany. 

The  most  radical  of  all  theories  of  social  reform,  is  that  advanced 
in  the  name  of  anarchy.  It  rejects  government  as  inherently  evil 
and  looks  to  individual  integrity  as  the  foundation  of  society.  "No 
more  parties,  no  more  authority,  absolute  liberty  of  man  and  citi- 
zen," is  the  cry  of  Proudhon,  who  longs  for  a  time  when  "a  regime 
of  voluntary  contracts,  substituted  for  a  regime  of  obligatory 
laws,  will  constitute  the  true  government  of  man,  the  true  sover- 
eignity of  the  people,  the  true  Republic.  Anarchy  injecting  itself 
into  trades  unionism,  becomes  syndicalism,  or  organization  by 
industries  rather  than  by  trades  and  crafts.  The  latest  word  in 
this  movement  is  spoken  by  the  Industrial  Workers  of  the  World 
in  this  country  and  the  Bolshevists  in  Europe. 

We  in  America  have  put  our  faith  in  political  democracy  as  the 
best  means  of  readjusting  society.  Although  called  into  being 
before  the  reign  of  the  machine  had  been  definitely  inaugurated, 

"•  Hayes,  Carlton  J.  H.,  A  Political  and  Social  History  of  Modern  Europe, 
Vol.  II.  p.  83. 

1"  Ibid.,  pp.  86-88.  A  brief  account  of  the  theories  of  Robert  Owen,  Saint- 
Simon,  Fourier  and  Louis  Blanc. 


48      The  Curriculum  of  the  Catholic  Elementary  School 

our  institutions  seem  well  fitted  to  reconcile  the  extreme  individ- 
ualism of  anarchy  on  one  hand,  and  extreme  socialism  on  the  other. 
Democracy  is  our  watch  word.  We  realize  that  it  is  a  new  venture, 
that  it  looks  in  vain  to  the  past  for  guiding  precedent.  There  were 
democracies  in  the  past,  but  they  were  city  democracies,  or  more 
correctly,  aristocracies,  wherein  a  servile  unfranchised  class 
labored  at  grosser  tasks,  that  the  favored  "free  citizens"  might 
enjoy  the  leisure  necessary  for  the  study  of  affairs.  With  us 
democracy  has  a  wider  significance.  It  includes  all  classes,  rich  or 
poor,  regardless  of  station,  fortune  or  sex.  We  have  faith  in 
democracy  because  we  take  it  to  mean  a  social  order  based  on 
cooperation,  rather  than  compulsion.  We  believe  in  the  excel- 
lence of  social  and  moral  sanctions,  rather  than  political  measures. 
Taking  our  Constitution  as  a  basis,  we  believe  that  it  is  possible 
to  work  out  all  the  vexed  problems  of  the  day.  The  proper  com- 
promise must  be  effected  between  law  and  liberty  and  the  results 
applied  to  all  the  various  departments  of  life."^ 

Another  characteristic  feature  of  modern  life  needs  to  be  noted. 
The  whole  complexion  of  the  present  day  is  profoundly  secular  as 
against  the  religious  character  of  the  past.  The  roots  of  this 
Secularism  can  be  traced  back  to  the  fourteenth  century,  when 
after  the  Western  Schism,  the  Church  began  to  lose  control  of  civil- 
ization. During  the  Middle  Ages,  the  influence  of  churchmen  on 
the  affairs  of  life  had  been  deep  and  far-reaching.  Medieval 
bishops  protected  cities  from  invasion  and  were  active  in  pro- 
moting trade  within  the  walls.  They  superintended  the  expendi- 
ture of  moneys  for  public  works,  regulated  the  sale  of  necessities 
and  sought  to  control  profits.  The  clergy,  as  educated  men,  were 
the  logical  trustees  of  civil  affairs,  and  because  their  very  vocation 
held  them  to  an  ideal  service  of  God,  they  were  regarded  as  being 
particularly  trustworthy.  Secular  business  was  administered  by 
clerics,  ecclesiastical  tribunals  reviewed  legal  matters,  and 
ecclesiastics  were  high  in  diplomatic  and  court  circles  throughout 
Europe. ^^'  This  was  in  accord  with  the  spirit  of  the  times,  accord- 
ing to  which  religion  should  be  supreme  and  the  influence  of  Christ 
should  be  felt  in  every  part  of  the  social  organism. 


^^*  Bristol,  L.  M.,  Education  and  the  National  Ideal.  Publications  of  the 
American  Sociological  Society,  Vol.  XIII,  1919,  p.  165. 

^^'  Cunningham,  W.,  An  Essay  on  Western  Civilization  in  its  Economic 
Aspects  (Medieval  and  Modern  Times),  p.  140. 


Discussion  of  Psychological  and  Social  Foundations    49 

But  when  the  Great  Schism  occurred  and  men  were  at  a  loss  to 
determine  who  was  the  real  head  of  the  Church,  when  abuses  and 
scandals  began  to  destroy  the  confidence  of  the  people  in  the 
clergy,  when  the  Black  Death  came  to  depopulate  Europe  and 
leave  society  in  a  tottering  condition  and  to  decimate  the  ranks  of 
the  clergy,  when  poverty  and  want  called  in  vain  to  an  impover- 
ished Church,  then  it  was  that  society  began  to  turn  to  secular 
agencies  for  assistance. ^^'^  We  note  the  rise  of  nationalities,  rend- 
ing the  unity  of  the  Empire  and  the  struggle  between  cities  and 
feudal  monarchies.  Vernacular  and  national  literatures  were 
born  and  the  Renaissance  comes  to  consecrate  secular  learning. 
Then  came  the  Protestant  revolt,  which  by  the  principle  of  private 
judgment  destroyed  the  authority  of  religion  completely  and  left 
men  no  appeal  save  that  to  reason  and  the  power  of  the  world. 

From  this  time  forward,  the  influence  of  religion  on  life,  outside 
the  Catholic  Church,  has  steadily  waned.  Protestantism  reached 
its  logical  conclusion  in  the  Enlightenment  of  the  eighteenth 
century  and  the  deification  of  reason.  Then  came  the  revolt  of 
Rousseau  and  Romanticism,  which  culminated  in  the  French 
Revolution  and  sought  to  reconstitute  society  on  a  purely  natural- 
istic basis.  Meanwhile,  critical  philosophy  casts  off  from  theology 
and  attempts  to  formulate  a  new  definition  of  truth  and  to  find  a 
new  solution  for  the  problems  of  life.  The  Idealism  of  Immanuel 
Kant  makes  the  mind  the  organizing  principle  of  the  world,  and 
the  world  as  a  consequence,  the  creation  of  the  mind.  Space 
and  time  are  subjective  forms  of  intuition  which  are  furnished  by 
the  mind  itself.  We  do  not  find  the  world  ready-made;  our  minds 
organize  and  shape  it.  '*The  understanding  does  not  derive  its 
laws  from  nature,  but  rather  imposes  them  upon  nature."  The 
subject  does  not  respond  to  the  object  in  the  process  of  knowing, 
but  the  subject  is  the  starting  point  to  which  the  object  conforms 
in  the  process  of  being  known.  ^^^  Ideas  do  not  conform  to  things, 
but  things  conform  to  ideas,  and  we  know  them  only  in  as  far  as 
they  are  given  shape  by  the  constitution  of  the  mind.  Out  of 
this  doctrine  grew  a  very  highly  idealized  doctrine  of  life.  Human 
reason  comes  to  be  regarded  as  a  manifestation  of  the  Absolute 
Reason  gradually  unfolding  and  coming  to  consciousness  of  itself. 
Man  becomes  part  and  parcel  of  the  divine. 

"o/Wrf.,  p.  1S8. 

»«  Eucken,  Rudolph,  The  Problem  of  Human  Life.     New  York,  1910,  p.  436 


50      The  Curriculum  of  the  Catholic  Elementary  School 

Natural  science,  no  longer  content  with  being  just  a  province 
of  human  thought,  now  enters  the  realm  of  philosophy.  Taking 
as  its  starting  point,  the  theory  of  evolution,  it  emphasizes  the 
genetic  view  of  human  nature  or  the  human  mind  in  the  process  of 
becoming.  It  sets  itself  up  against  idealism,  by  centering  its 
attention,  not  on  the  ideal  perfection  visioned  by  Kant  and  Hegel, 
but  upon  the  perfectibility  seen  from  brute  beginnings.  Ontogeny 
is  studied  that  phylogeny  may  be  understood.  Man  is  regarded 
as  a  part  of  nature  subject  to  the  same  laws  as  lower  things  in  his 
growth,  development  and  perfection.  Progress  is  due  to  the  clash 
of  elemental  forces  and  it  is  the  action  of  natural  selection  and  not 
the  intervention  of  any  external,  transcendent  power,  that  rules 
the  destiny  of  the  world.  ^22 

The  advent  of  Industrialism  presented  the  human  mind  with  a 
new  problem.  On  the  one  hand,  it  painted  a  glorious  picture  of 
the  achievements  of  human  intelligence  in  the  physical  world;  on 
the  other  hand,  the  vision  of  the  many  ills  engendered  could  not  be 
shut  out.  Men  became  interested  in  the  problem  of  social  control. 
The  laws  of  science  are  searched  for  a  method  of  dealing  with 
human  relationships;  just  in  how  far  are  they  subject  to  the  reign 
of  law.  ^2^  A  new  philosophy  is  born,  the  spawn  of  all  that  had 
gone  before.  Based  on  evolution,  showing  earmarks  of  Ra- 
tionalism, tinged  with  Idealism,  it  goes  under  the  name  of  Prag- 
matism. Truth  is  pragmatic;  it  is  not  the  correspondence  of  an 
idea  within  the  mind  with  objective  reality,  but  rather  it  is  the 
efficacy  of  the  idea  as  a  means  to  an  end.  Hence  truth  is  not 
something  inherent  in  the  idea  itself;  rather  it  is  the  measure 
of  the  success  of  the  idea  as  a  useful  instrument.  The  idea  is  a 
symbol,  a  "plan  of  action."  The  teleological  is  rejected,  iSrst 
principles  are  scorned,  thinking,  not  thought,  is  important.  Con- 
duct has  no  moral  meaning  derived  from  the  principles  of  right 
and  wrong;  it  is  evaluated  according  to  its  utility  for  producing 
results. ^'^'^  Pragmatism  invades. the  province  of  theology  with  an 
attempt  to  substitute  a  kind  of  mystic  voluntarism  for  intellectual 
faith;  it  proposes  a  new  psychology  based  on  function  and  reaction 
rather  than  structure;  it  preaches  the  doctrine  of  Creative  Evolu- 


122  Ibid.,  p.  536. 

123  Ibid.,  p.  542. 

124  James,  William,  Pragmatism,  New  York,  1907;  cf.  also  works  of  Dewey. 
Royce,  Schiller  and  Bergson. 


Discussion  of  Psychological  and  Social  Foundations    51 

tion,  showing  how  man  can  create  for  himself  a  glorious  destiny. 
All  of  which  is  a  long  cry  from  the  doctrine  of  sacrifice,  of  humility 
and  obedience,  of  faith  and  love  of  God  as  we  find  it  in  the  Gospel. 
We  may  sum  up  Secularism  by  saying  that  it  is  the  world  come 
into  its  own.  Its  ideals  are  all  mundane;  it  dreams  of  perfecting 
man's  present  estate  and  refuses  to  allow  the  possibility  of  a  future 
life  to  distract  its  eflForts.  Its  hope  is  in  science,  in  politics  and  in 
social  reform.  Its  interests  are  here  and  now.  **It  is  determined 
that  all  men  shall  know  the  truth — not  the  medieval  truth  that  the 
afflictions  of  this  world  shall  be  recompensed  in  heaven,  but  the 
scientific  truth  that  there  is  no  reason  save  our  own  carelessness  and 
unintelligence,  why  anyone  should  be  deprived  of  the  goods  of 
life."i25 

Such,  sketched  in  broad  lines,  is  the  character  of  contemporary 
society.  Industrialism,  democracy,  secularism  are  the  distinctive 
notes  of  the  present  social  environment.  These  have  been  taken 
into  account  by  the  schools  of  our  country  and  a  corresponding 
educational  program  has  been  formulated.  The  program  is 
definitely  sociological  as  against  the  psychological  point  of  view 
which  has  long  obtained.  No  longer  is  education  regarded  as  a 
matter  of  formal  discipline,  whose  objective  is  mental  development 
and  power  effected  through  the  medium  of  idealized  subject, 
matter.  The  modern  aim  is  more  specific.  It  looks  to  the 
development  of  such  powers  as  may  be  made  effective  for  useful 
ends  and  the  stimulation  of  tendencies  to  exercise  these  powers  for 
such  ends.^-^  Modern  science  and  industry  have  completely 
changed  the  conditions  of  life  and  living  and  created  new  social 
needs.  The  concentration  of  the  great  bulk  of  the  population  in 
cities  and  the  artificial  character  of  city  life  has  resulted  in  a  loss 
of  physical  skill  and  ingenuity.  The  modern  city  child  lacks  the 
manual  dexterity  of  his  fathers.  The  school  must  make  good  the 
loss  by  providing  for  manual  training,  domestic  science  and 
gymnastics.  It  must  coordinate  itself  with  the  home  and  supply 
those  elements  which  the  latter  no  longer  provides. 

Again  the  kaleidoscopic  character  of  city  life  with  all  its  varying 
stimuli,  plays  havoc  with  mental  continuity  and  concentration. 
The  attention  is  being  forever  stimulated  in  some  new  direction 


1"  Hart,  Joseph  Kinmont,  Democracy  in  Education,  p.  223. 
'*•  Harvey,    Lorenzo,    D.      The    Need,    Scope   and    Character   of    Industrial 
Education.     National  Educational  Association  Proceedings,  1909,  p.  49. 


52      The  Curriculum  of  the  Catholic  Elementary  School 

and  the  imagination  tempted  to  run  riot.  The  child  finds  external 
life  so  interesting  that  only  with  the  greatest  diflBculty  can  he 
center  his  mind  on  invisible,  underlying  laws,  the  knowledge  of 
which  is  consecutive  thought.  The  school  must  come  to  his 
rescue,  aiding  him  to  unify  his  experiences,  demonstrating  to  him 
the  correlation  between  the  domestic,  social  and  economic  phases 
of  his  life,  stimulating  him  to  creative  thought  and  rescuing  him 
from  the  disaster  of  going  through  life,  beholding  all  things,  yet 
seeing  nothing. 

Because  modern  life  causes  haphazard  thinking,  it  follows  that 
there  will  be  lack  of  moral  steadiness.  A  great  amount  of  in- 
formation poured  into  the  mind  from  many  sources  fails  to  develop 
character.  The  result  is  superficiality  and  failure  to  cleave  to  the 
principles  of  right  in  the  face  of  difficulty.  The  school  must  find 
room  for  moral  education,  and  though  it  is  deeply  conscious  of 
this  fact,  it  has  not  as  yet  discovered  an  adequate  method. 

Finally,  there  is  lack  of  vocational  training.  In  the  old  indus- 
trial home,  the  sons  learned  their  trade  from  the  father,  while 
the  mother  trained  the  daughters  in  the  arts  of  home-making. 
Under  present  conditions,  with  specialized  labor  on  one  hand 
and  the  wide  use  of  unskilled  labor  on  the  other,  boys  enter 
the  lists  of  the  wage-earners,  without  first  acquiring  a  trade  and 
are  as  a  consequence,  more  or  less  at  the  mercy  of  circumstances. 
Girls,  too,  must  go  forth  to  earn  a  living  and  have  little  time  to 
learn  the  art  of  home-making.  The  school  would  meet  this  ex- 
igency with  an  adequate  system  of  vocational  education. ^^7 

Social  Efficiency  is  the  slogan  of  modern  education.  The 
individual  must  become  an  efficient  member  of  society.  Per- 
sonality is  considered  a  social  product,  created  by  social  contact. 
The  only  values  are  social  values  and  the  good  of  the  group  is  the 
one  thing  worth  considering.  The  school  must  be  socialized,  its 
aims,  methods,  materials,  organization  and  administration  made 
to  conform  to  the  needs  of  society.  For  social  life  can  be  purged 
of  all  its  ills  and  brought  to  perfection  if  the  social  point  of  view 
supercedes  the  individual.  Cooperation  must  become  complete. 
The  school  being  a  preparation  for  life,  should  reflect  the  ideal 
conditions  of  life.  It  must  be  a  social  institution,  where  there 
is  free  interplay  of  individual  minds,  where  learning  is  accomplished 

^27  Smith,  Walter  Robinson,  An  Introduction  to  Educational  Sociology. 
New  York,  1917,  passim. 


Discussion  of  Psychological  and  Social  Foundations     53 

by  groups  of  interested  workers.  The  social  project  is  proclaimed 
the  best  method  and  subject-matter  is  evaluated  according  to 
social  standards. ^2* 

Now  this  plan  of  modern  education  is  profoundly  secular.  Its 
prophets  speak  of  religion,  but  the  religion  they  know  is  social 
service. '29  It  has  nothing  to  do  with  the  idea  of  a  personal  rela- 
tion between  man  and  his  God.  *'The  evangelical  notion  of  religion 
as  a  purely  personal  relation  between  God  and  the  soul,  setting 
man  apart  from  his  fellows,  is  widely  regarded  as  an  exploded  fic- 
tion. Religion  is  now  seen  to  be  a  social  growth,  like  speech.  It 
roots  itself  in  social  relationships  and  expresses  itself  therein.  If 
it  is  of  worth  it  must  make  such  relationships  easier  not  harder, 
and   must  enrich,  not  impoverish  them."'^° 

Precisely  here  it  is  that  modern  educational  philosophy  makes  its 
fundamental  error.  Religious,  social,  moral  are  not  synonymous 
terms;  there  is  an  essential  difference  that  must  be  recognized. 
Social  efficiency  will  not  save  the  world;  salvation,  temporal  as  well 
as  eternal,  can  only  come  through  Him  Who  is  the  Way,  the  Truth 
and  the  Light.  He  speaks  today  through  His  divinely  constituted 
Church  and  the  Church  whispers  His  Message  to  His  little  ones  in 
her  schools.  The  Catholic  school  possesses  the  secret  of  true  social 
eJBSciency.  It  is  faith  in  God  and  in  Jesus  Christ  Whom  He  has 
sent  and  in  love  of  Him  above  all  things.  This  is  the  basis  of  every 
other  duty  and  obligation.  It  assumes  the  sacredness  of  the 
individual  based  on  the  true  notion  of  personality  as  a  complete 
and  incommunicable  substance. ^^^  It  insists  on  love  of  neighbor 
as  a  correlate  and  indispensable  condition  to  the  love  of  God. 
Christian  charity  includes  all  social  virtues  and  affords  them  a 
valid  sanction.  There  are  those  that  charge  that  **religious 
schools  are  backward  because  they  assume  religion  to  be  the 
fundamental  fact  of  life,  whereas  it  is  only  one  of  the  elements 
which  make  up  that  indissoluble  unity." ^^^  Backwardness  of  this 
kind  is  the  truest  progress  for  it  is  based  on  truth.  Religion  is  not 
a  mere  department  of  life;  it  is  the  meaning  and  end  of  life.  Modern 


"*  Wilson,  H.  B.,  Socializing  the  School,  Educational  Administration  and 
Superriinon,  Vol.  IV,  No.  2,  p.  88. 

"»  Bobbitt,  Franklin,   The  Curriculum.     Boston,  1918.  p.  166. 

"*  McGiffert,  Arthur  Cushman,  The  Rise  of  Modern  Religious  Ideas.  New- 
York,  1915,  p.  273. 

"»  St.  Thomas,  Summa  Theologica.     Paris  Prima,  Qu.  29. 

»«  Todd.  Arthur  G.,  Theories  of  Progress.     New  York,  1918,  p.  4S5. 


54      The  Curriculum  of  the  Catholic  Elementary  School 

society  will  avoid  ruin  and  desolation  only  in  proportion  as  it 
recognizes  this  fact  and  accepts  it. 

But  it  will  not  be  enough  for  the  Catholic  school  to  insist  on  the 
necessity  of  religion  as  fundamental  to  all  education.  The  rela- 
tions between  religion  and  social  life,  between  the  love  of  God  and 
the  love  of  neighbor,  between  divine  service  and  social  service, 
must  be  made  explicit.  The  cult  of  democracy  affords  an  oppor- 
tunity for  this.  True  democracy  was  proclaimed  when  the  Master 
taught  His  disciples  to  pray,  "Our  Father  Who  art  in  heaven."^^^ 
The  Fatherhood  of  God  implies  the  brotherhood  of  man.  St.  Paul 
is  only  developing  the  idea  when  he  tells  us  that  before  God  "there 
is  neither  Gentile  nor  Jew,  circumcision  nor  uncircumcision,  Bar- 
barian nor  Scythian,  bond  nor  free.  But  Christ  is  all  in  all."^^'* 
The  first  requisite  for  democracy  is  unselfishness.  To  act  unsel- 
fishly at  all  times  is  no  easy  matter,  for  selfishness  is  native  in 
human  nature.  There  must  be  an  adequate  motive.  The  mere 
recognition  that  the  common  good  demands  this  sacrifice  will  not 
be  sufficient.  But  a  realization  that  this  is  the  law  of  Christ,  that 
self-love  is  a  sin  against  charity,  that  whatsoever  is  done  to  the 
least  of  His  brethren  is  done  unto  Him,  that  the  mark  of  member- 
ship in  His  Mystical  Body  is  love,  will  lead  a  man  gladly  to  sink  his 
private  interests  in  the  common  good. 

These  are  applications  of  our  divine  Faith,  that  the  Catholic 
school  must  make  for  the  children.  They  should  not  be  left  to 
chance,  for  we  have  no  assurance  that  knowledge  of  our  Religion 
will  function  automatically  to  produce  a  life  in  conformity  with 
it.  Religion  must  be  interpreted  in  terms  of  social  and  political 
life.  Thus  the  child  will  be  prepared,  when  the  time  comes,  to 
exert  his  influence  and  direct  his  support  in  the  cause  of  truth, 
justice  and  right. 

There  remains  one  more  important  consideration.  Modern  life 
is  industrial;  it  is  industry  that  fixes  the  conditions  of  living, 
working,  playing,  associating  and  resting.  The  Catholic  school 
must  assist  the  child  to  live  according  to  the  law  of  Christ,  to 
grow  up  to  His  fulness,  in  an  environment  that  resounds  with  the 
clanking  of  iron  and  steel,  the  whirr  of  machinery  and  the  bustle 
of  commerce. 

Economists  distinguish  four  great  phases  of  industrial  life,  pro- 


133  Matthew,  VI.  v.  9, 

134  Colossians,  III.  11. 


Discussion  of  Psychological  and  Social  Foundations    55 

duction,  distribution,  exchange  and  consumption.  Though  the 
major  portion  of  his  time  and  effort  may  be  directed  towards  one  of 
these  phases  in  particular,  every  individual  is  vitally  concerned  with 
all  of  them.  Consequently  the  school  should  give  the  child  an  ele- 
mentary knowledge  of  all  four.  All  should  know  something  about 
production,  or  for  what  Bobbitt  calls  "occupational  efficiency,'*^^^* 
not  only  that  the  danger  of  aimless  idleness  may  be  obviated,  but 
that  there  may  be  a  more  general  appreciation  of  the  function  of 
labor  in  society.  This  will  inspire  those  who  work  with  a  more 
ideal  conception  of  their  task,  the  while  it  serves  to  break  down  the 
barriers  of  class  prejudice.  Secondly,  all  should  acquire  an  elemen- 
tary knowledge  of  the  process  of  distribution  and  exchange.  Sound 
knowledge  of  this  kind  would  help  toward  putting  a  conscience  into 
business  and  would  give  a  basis  for  judging  the  reforms  that  are 
advocated  in  the  name  of  a  more  equitable  distribution  of  wealth. 
Lastly,  all  should  be  trained  for  the  proper  use  of  the  fruits  of 
industry.  This  is  sometimes  called  education  for  leisure  or  enjoy- 
ment, though  more  is  included  than  is  generally  connoted  by  these 
terms.  All  should  learn  to  desire  things  that  are  good  and  worth 
while,  to  spurn  the  cheap  and  tawdry,  and  exhibit  that  thrift  and 
economy  in  the  use  of  things  that  is  demanded  by  the  virtues  of 
prudence  and  temperance. ^^^ 

These  types  of  training  should  be  included  in  the  right  propor- 
tion in  the  education  of  every  child.  It  will  serve  clearness  to 
examine  each  one  of  them  a  bit  more  closely. 

We  might  define  productional  knowledge  as  that  which  fits  one 
to  make  things  that  sell.  It  regards  those  arts  and  occupations 
whose  purpose  is  the  creation  of  wealth  through  the  application 
of  labor  and  intelligence  to  natural  materials.^^^  Strictly  speaking, 
production  has  to  do  with  those  occupations  wherein  manual  skill 
is  directly  applied  to  raw  materials,  although  other  agencies,  such  as 
carriers,  bankers,  lawyers,  clergymen,  etc.,  contribute  in  a  real 
though  secondary  way.  General  knowledge  of  production  should 
include  the  manner  of  extracting  raw  materials  from  the  earth;  this 
comprises  agriculture  and  mining.  Then  the  transforming  of  raw 
materials  by  the  so-called  industrial  vocations,  manufacture  and 
its  correlate,  machino-facture  and  the  transportation  of  the  pro- 

"«  Bobbitt.  Franklin,  The  Curriculum,  p.  53. 

^"  Weeks,  Arland  D.,  The  Education  of  Tomorrow;  the  Adaptation  of  School 
Curricula  to  Economic  Democracy.     New  York,  1913,  Ch.  XI. 
»>•  Ibid.,  p.  15. 


56      The  Curriculum  of  the  Catholic  Elementary  School 

duct.  This  knowledge  concerns  everyone,  for  everyone  is  de- 
pendent upon  these  agencies  for  keeping  aHve  and  well.  It  opens 
up  the  vision  of  later  life  to  the  child  and  brings  home  to  him  a 
sense  of  his  dependency  upon  society. 

Various  studies  contribute  to  productional  knowledge;  cer- 
tainly, the  form  studies,  the  three  R's,  for  without  them  a  man 
can  prepare  himself,  neither  to  produce  or  to  appreciate  the 
value  of  production.  There  should  be  practical  applications  of 
arithmetic  to  the  problems  of  production.  Nature  study  con- 
tributes when  its  aim  is  to  bring  out  the  relation  between  nature 
and  human  needs.  Geography  shows  how  environment  affects 
productional  activities.  History  should  include  the  story  of 
production  in  the  past.  Civics,  when  treated  from  the  community 
point  of  view,  shows  the  influence  of  the  state,  of  law,  order,  police 
and  fire  protection  on  the  process  of  making  things  to  supply 
human  needs.  Literature  and  art  likewise  play  their  part.  The 
relation  between  the  fine  and  practical  arts  should  be  insisted  on 
and  the  artistic  character  of  good  workmanship  should  be  pointed 
out.  The  interest  in  music  might  be  stimulated  if  children  knew 
something  about  the  process  of  making  musical  instruments. 
"One  may  easily  undervalue  the  contribution  of  the  less  evidently 
productional  types  of  knowledge,  and  while  properly  laying  stress 
on  the  factors  that  directly  function  for  wealth,  err  in  denying  pro- 
ductional values  to  the  more  abstract  mental  products. "^^^ 

Of  late,  a  new  subject,  industrial  arts,  has  made  its  appearance 
in  the  elementary  school  curriculum.  It  is  really  not  a  new  sub- 
ject but  rather  an  evolution  of  manual  training.  We  have  seen 
how  public  pressure  caused  the  introduction  of  the  manual  arts. 
In  the  beginning  the  training  value  of  this  new  subject  was  em- 
phasized. The  work  was  based  largely  on  the  Swedish  sloyd 
system,  whose  spirit  was  disciplinary  and  whose  aims  were  partly 
formative  and  partly  utilitarian.^^^  Katherine  Dopp,  in  her 
"Social  and  Industrial  History  Series,"  intended  for  the  primary 
grades,  introduced  the  evolutionary  type  of  practical  arts,  built  up 
on  the  basis  of  the  Culture  Epoch  theory.  The  attempt  is  to 
acquaint  the  child  with  the  evolution  of  industry  through  the  ages 
and  thus  to  give  him  an  understanding  of  the  present  situation. 


"7  Ibid.,  p.  18. 

^^^  Parker,  Samuel  Chester,   The  History  of  Modern  Elementary   Education, 
p.  464. 


Discussion  of  Psychological  and  Social  Foundations    57 

Today,  a  new  point  of  view  has  developed.  It  would  study  indus- 
try for  the  sake  of  a  better  perspective  of  man's  control  of  eco- 
nomic f actors. ^^'  It  takes  exception  to  the  evolutionary  ap- 
proach on  the  grounds  that  to  "rediscover  every  step  in  the 
development  of  these  arts  is  to  miss  the  purpose  of  these  arts;  it 
may  be  good  industrial  history,  but  it  is  not  good  industrial 
training."  The  course  may  be  organized  on  the  basis  of  the  raw 
materials  used  in  industry — foods,  textiles,  woods,  metals,  earth, 
and  would  show  how  these  are  transformed  into  finished  products. 
Inasmuch  as  there  is  an  overlapping  in  the  use  of  materials, 
another  method  of  organization  has  been  suggested,  based  on  use. 
The  course  would  answer  the  question.  How  does  the  race  provide 
itself  with  food,  clothing,  machines,  records,  tools,  weapons  and 
utensils.  The  purpose  is  not  so  much  to  learn  the  processes  of 
construction  as  to  get  an  idea  of  how  things  are  made.^*®  The 
time  element  immediately  comes  to  mind,  but  the  sponsors  of  the 
movement  claim  that  time  will  be  saved,  for  there  will  be  a  reduction 
of  subjects.  Drawing,  manual  training,  domestic  science  and 
domestic  art  will  all  be  included  in  this  one  subject."  This  subject, 
representing  a  content  of  thought  and  experience  rich  and  vital  in 
human  values,  may  take  its  place  in  the  elementary  school,  as 
dignified  and  respectable  as  geography  or  history  or  arithmetic. "^*^ 
Morevoer,  there  are  splendid  opportunities  for  correlation  with 
arithmetic,  geography,  nature  study,  etc.  An  added  advantage  of 
the  course,  is  that  it  does  not  require  any  involved  paraphernalia 
and  can  be  taught  by  the  regular  grade  teacher. 

A  knowledge  of  the  processes  of  distribution  and  exchange  is 
necessary  for  everyone,  for  even  though  a  man  has  no  direct  in- 
terest in  production,  he  does  share  in  the  things  that  are  produced. 
If  distribution  is  unregulated,  if  business  pursues  its  course  unre- 
strained, society  will  suffer.  Lack  of  adequate  regulation  in  this 
regard  is  responsible  for  no  end  of  our  present  evils,  for  swollen 
fortunes,  for  low  wages  and  high  prices,  for  watered  stock  and 
cornering  of  markets,  for  all  the  buccaneering  tactics  of  high 
finance. 

"»  Russell,  James  E.,  The  School  and  Industrial  Life.  New  York,  1914. 
(Columbia  University  Publication),  p.  6. 

"°  The  Speyer  School  Curriculum.  New  York,  1913.  (Columbia  University 
Publication.)  Gives  complete  organization  of  course  in  industrial  arts  based 
on  use. 

"*  Bonser,  Frederick  G.,  Fundamental  Values  in  Industrial  Education, 
Columbia  University  Publication,  New  York,  1914,  p.  38. 


58      The  Curriculum  of  the  Catholic  Elementary  School 

If  we  are  to  have  real  democracy  and  a  universal  participation  in 
the  fruits  of  modern  industrial  progress,  there  must  be  a  better 
knowledge  of  the  process  of  distribution.  The  rudiments  of  this 
knowledge  should  be  given  to  every  child.  There  should  be 
included  a  knowledge  of  commercial  procedure,  the  conditions  of 
barter  and  exchange,  of  transportation  and  trade.  These  impli- 
cations should  enter  into  the  history  course  and  be  taught  in  civics. 
Arithmetic  should  have  plenty  of  this  kind  of  application  and 
should  include  practical  problems  in  taxation,  trade,  banking, 
insurance,  stocks  and  bonds.  Religion  should  demonstrate  that 
graft  and  corruption,  unjust  wage  and  poor  working  conditions, 
constitute  an  infringement  of  the  Law  of  God.  The  social  re- 
sponsibility of  wealth  should  be  emphasized,  the  Christian  truth 
that  ownership  is  stewardship  and  implies  strict  accountability  to 
God. 

On  the  other  hand  the  dependency  of  the  factors  of  distribution 
on  social  stability  should  be  emphasized  at  every  turn.  The 
tendency  of  the  day  is  to  seek  the  cure  of  social  ills  in  the  complete 
destruction  of  the  present  social  order.  The  fallacy  of  this  sort  of 
radicalism  should  be  made  apparent  to  the  child  and  he  should  be 
taught  to  see  that  the  established  machinery  of  government,  if 
properly  operated,  is  the  best  means  for  curing  abuses  and  bringing 
about  social  justice.  History  and  civics  are  rich  in  opportunities 
for  this  sort  of  teaching,  as  is  religion  with  its  insistence  on  patience 
and  obedience. 

Training  for  the  consumption  of  goods  includes  a  wide  range. 
There  is  primary  consumption,  including  food,  clothing  and  shelter. 
Over  and  above  these  there  is  the  consumption  of  things  necessary 
for  physical  well-being,  the  little  luxuries  of  life.  There  are  the 
materials  required  for  family  life  and  the  proper  care  of  children. 
There  should  be  training  in  the  right  use  of  money,  the  cultivation 
of  the  proper  appreciation  of  objects  in  the  interests  of  economy  and 
a  distaste  for  the  cheap  and  degrading.  Training  for  recreation 
comes  in  with  its  implied  cultivation  of  the  proper  social  relation- 
ships. Here  is  included,  in  a  word,  all  that  knowledge  which 
bears  upon  the  use,  economic,  aesthetic  or  social,  of  any  object 
whatsoever.  ^"^^ 

Many  elements  in  the  curriculum  can  be  made  to  yield  this  kind 
of  knowledge.     Religion,  first  of  all,  by  insisting,  in  season  and  out, 

»— — ^— — — ^^  r 

*"  Ryan,  John  A.,  Distributive  Justice.     New  York,  1919,  p.  861. 


Discussion  of  Psychological  and  Social  Foundations    59 

that  creatures  are  to  be  used  as  means  not  ends,  that  they  are  the 
ladder  whereon  we  cHmb  to  God.  Music,  literature  and  art  edu- 
cate the  taste  and  instill  a  love  for  the  noble  and  beautiful.  Thrift 
can  be  inculcated  in  the  arithmetic  lesson.  Use  values  can  be 
pointed  out  by  means  of  the  industrial  arts.  Hygiene,  school 
recreations,  and  organized  play,  all  have  their  influence.  Nature 
study  has  its  aesthetic  aspects;  it  also  teaches  many  valuable  lessons 
in  hygiene.  After  all,  to  teach  children  the  proper  use  of  things, 
is  to  teach  them  to  live,  for  the  manner  in  which  a  man  enjoys  the 
fruits  of  his  labor  and  that  of  others,  is  the  measure  of  his  integrity. 

We  have  reviewed  the  needs  of  modern  society  and  indicated  in 
broad  lines  the  manner  in  which  the  Catholic  school  must  meet 
them.  We  might  call  this,  in  a  word,  education  for  practical  life. 
Bobbitt  sums  it  up  in  the  following  words:  *'The  individual  is 
educated  who  can  perform  efficiently  the  labors  of  his  calling;  who 
can  effectively  cooperate  with  his  fellows  in  social  and  civic  affairs; 
who  can  keep  his  bodily  powers  at  a  high  level  of  efficiency;  who  is 
prepared  to  participate  in  a  proper  range  of  desirable  leisure  occu- 
pations; who  can  effectively  bring  his  children  to  full-orbed  man- 
hood and  womanhood,  and  who  can  carry  on  all  his  social  relations 
with  his  fellows  in  an  agreeable  and  effective  manner.""^ 

Now  there  are  those  who  claim  that  having  stated  this,  you  have 
stated  the  whole  end  and  aim  of  education.  These  people  look 
upon  economic  life  as  an  end,  rather  than  a  means.  They  can 
conceive  of  no  aim  higher  than  present  living,  and  education,  in 
their  thinking,  is  but  an  instrument  for  social  bettermenj:.  They 
represent  an  extreme  reaction  from  the  formal  and  humanistic 
ideal  of  education  that  has  widely  prevailed;  because  the  schools 
hesitated  to  have  anything  to  do  with  the  work-a-day,  they  will 
have  nothing  but  the  work-a-day. 

But  economic  life  is  not  an  end  in  itself.  It  is  but  a  preparation 
and  condition  for  a  higher  type  of  activity.  Man  needs  bread,  but 
man  does  not  live  by  bread  alone.  We  may  not  teach  trades  at 
the  expense  of  academic  knowledge,  which  is,  after  all,  society's 
priceless  heirloom.  The  body  is  worth  more  than  the  raiment  and 
man  is  worth  more  than  his  occupation.  Education  is  essentially  a 
human  process,  and  while  it  is  absolutely  necessary  that  the  indi- 
vidual be  brought  into  vital  contact  with  his  environment,  it  must 


i*«  Bobbitt,  Franklin,  The  Curriculum,  p.  3. 


60      The  Curriculum  of  the  Catholic  Elementary  School 

always  be  borne  in  mind  that  the  individual  should  be  the  master, 
not  the  creature  of  his  environment.  He  must  be  released  from 
the  bondage  of  the  machine,  and  not  made  more  completely  a  cog 
of  the  same.  Society  has  its  claims  on  the  school;  if  the  school 
refuses  to  heed  them,  it  is  doomed  to  failure  and  ineffectiveness. 
But  the  school  does  not  exist  for  society  alone;  it  must  never  forget 
its  duties  to  the  individual.  Education  absolves  its  obligation  of 
adjustment,  not  when  it  succeeds  merely  in  fitting  the  individual 
into  his  environment,  but  when  it  lends  the  individual  the  power 
of  utilizing  his  environment  for  higher  ends  and  of  elevating  it  in 
turn  to  a  higher  level.     This  is  the  secret  of  progress. 


CHAPTER  IV 

SUBJECT  MATTER   AND   THE   INDIVIDUAL 

In  the  last  chapter  we  have  noted  the  modern  tendency  to  regard 
education  as  exclusively  a  means  of  social  control  and  to  make  the 
good  of  society  its  principal  aim.  This  is  in  line  with  the  current 
social  philosophy,  which  regards  the  group  as  of  paramount  impor- 
tance and  considers  the  individual  only  in  relation  to  the  group. 
Individual  rights  and  duties  are  measured  by  social  norms  on  the 
assumption  that  the  individual  exists  for  society.  A  further 
inference  identifies  society  with  the  State  and  makes  the  State  the 
all-powerful  arbiter  of  individual  destiny.  The  trend  of  modern 
legislation,  even  in  spite  of  the  fact  that  the  late  war  has  demon- 
strated the  peril  of  allowing  governments  to  become  too  strong, 
shows  how  practical  this  philosophy  has  become. 

Catholic  philosophy  has  ever  maintained  that  Society  exists  for 
the  individual.  The  economy  of  salvation  dictates  this  view:  that 
the  individual  may  save  his  soul  and  come  to  his  appointed  destiny, 
union  with  God,  the  world  was  created  and  the  Redemption 
effected.  Society,  and  its  organized  sovereign  will,  the  State,  are 
means  of  salvation.  They  are  the  temporal  concomitants  of 
Divine  Grace  and  are  intended  to  so  dispose  temporal  things  that 
the  individual  may  the  better  devote  himself  to  things  spiritual. 
Man  has  other  interests,  other  allegiances,  than  the  merely  civil, 
because  he  has  a  higher  destiny  than  the  merely  natural.  He 
must  render  to  Caesar  the  things  that  are  Caesar's,  but  there  are 
more  important  things  in  his  life  over  which  Caesar  has  no  control. 
St.  Thomas  points  out  that  "man  is  not  subservient  to  the  civil 
community  to  the  extent  of  his  whole  self,  all  that  he  is  and  all  that 
he  has.""^  The  Pagans  deified  the  State  and  worshipped  the  em- 
peror as  a  god.  The  blood  of  the  martyrs  was  poured  out  in  protest 
against  this  system  and  the  Church  has  ever  jealously  guarded  the 
rights  of  the  individual  against  undue  encroachments  on  the  part 
of  the  State.  We  recall  the  glorious  work  of  Gregory  VII,  in  this 
connection.  The  philosophy  of  the  Church  is  very  simple.  Tem- 
poral things  exist  for  the  sake  of  the  eternal.     The  temporal  ele- 

^**  St.  Thomas,  " Summa  Theologica."     Prima- Secundae,  Qu.  XXI,  a.  4,  ad  3. 

61 


62      The  Curriculum  of  the  Catholic  Elementary  School 

merits  of  man's  life  are  regulated  by  society  through  the  State. 
They  represent  a  lower  order  and  are  of  a  consequence  bound  to 
serve  that  which  is  higher.  They  exist  as  a  means,  not  an  end. 
The  end  of  the  group  is  to  provide  the  best  conditions  for  the 
individual  to  work  out  his  eternal  destiny,  to  save  his  immortal 
soul.  1^5 

This  does  not  imply  that  the  individual  has  no  reciprocal  rela- 
tions to  the  group.  Whilst  it  is  true  that  the  group  exists  for  the 
individual,  it  is  quite  as  true  that  the  individual  cannot  attain  his 
destiny  without  the  group.  Society  exists  because  it  answers  man's 
primal  instinct  to  associate. ^"^^  The  child  needs  the  family,  the 
family  needs  the  community,  the  community  needs  the  State." 
The  need  for  the  existence  of  the  State  with  its  array  of  soldiers, 
constables  and  tax-gatherers,  rests  on  three  grounds:  first,  the 
natural  sociability  of  men,  or  their  desire  of  living  together; 
secondly,  their  endowment  by  their  Creator  with  various  rights; 
thirdly,  their  moral  and  intellectual  imperfections. "^^^  The  in- 
dividual requires  the  cooperation  of  the  group  in  all  that  he 
desires  to  accomplish.  In  return  for  such  cooperation  he  must 
make  surrenders  of  his  own  will  and  impulse.  This  is  all  in- 
cluded under  the  law  of  Christian  charity,  which  postulates  that 
he  love  his  neighbor  as  himself. 

Now  social  reform  and  social  betterment  is  a  Christian  duty,  for 
the  diflSculty  of  saving  one's  soul  increases  according  as  the  evils  of 
temporal  life  rise  up  to  impede  and  discourage  us.  Moreover,  it  is 
inconsonant  with  the  ideal  of  Christian  justice,  that  oppression  and 
exploitation  of  the  weak  by  the  strong  should  pursue  their  way  un- 
hindered and  unrebuked.  But  social  reform  must  begin  with  the 
individual.  There  are  certain  improvements  which  can  be  effected 
by  legislating  from  above,  but  they  will  be  but  empty  and  transi- 
tory if  corresponding  reforms  are  not  attempted  from  below. 
The  quality  of  a  group  depends  upon  what  the  individuals  com- 
posing it  think  and  feel  and  do.  Consequently  the  best  ultimate 
way  of  improving  society  and  bringing  it  up  to  the  level  of  high 
ideals  is  to  improve  the  individual. 

The  educational  corollary  of  all  this  is  that  the  real  function  of 


"^  Sertillanges,  A.  D.,  La  Politique  Chretienne.     Paris,  1904,  p.  39. 
"®  Leo  XIII,  Encyclical,   Immortale  Dei.      "The  Great  Encyclical  Letters 
of  Pope  Leo  XIII."     New  York,  1903,  p.  108. 

"'  Devas,  Charles  Stanton,  Political  Economy.     New  York,  1901,  p.  571. 


Discussion  of  Psychological  and  Social  Foundations    63 

education  is  the  improvement  of  the  individual.  Practical  educa- 
tion is  necessary,  but  it  is  not  the  sole  essential.  ** There  is  danger 
that  in  swinging  from  the  extreme  that  produced  men  with  an 
education  without  a  vocation,  we  will  swing  to  the  other  extreme 
that  will  produce  men  with  a  vocation  without  an  education.**^** 
We  need  workers,  but  we  need  men  more.  The  prime  function 
of  education  is  to  make  those  diflFerences  in  the  thought  and  action 
of  the  individual  that,  summed  up,  spell  character.  Thus,  on  the 
one  hand,  will  be  saved  the  principle  of  individual  integrity,  while, 
on  the  other,  the  needs  of  society  will  be  consulted  and  true  social 
reform  effected. 

Education  which  has  for  its  aim  the  improvement  of  the  indi- 
vidual, sometimes  goes  under  the  name  of  education  for  culture, 
though  the  term  may  have  an  invidious  meaning  for  some  because 
of  a  narrow  interpretation  of  the  word,  culture.  This  aspect  of 
the  question  will  be  taken  up  later;  for  the  present  we  will  confine 
ourselves  to  a  discussion  of  the  means  of  achieving  individual 
culture. 

Here  we  are  face  to  face  with  one  of  the  greatest  problems  of 
education.  All  great  educators  in  all  times  have  implicitly,  if  not 
explicitly,  maintained  that  real  education  is  impossible  without  so 
disciplining  the  mind  as  to  make  it  a  fit  instrument  for  the  uses  of 
life.  This  concept  is  found  in  Greek  education,^*®  and  persists 
throughout  the  ages.  But  the  question  is,  how  shall  this  discipline 
be  secured.'*  How  shall  the  mind  be  developed  and  strengthened  so 
as  to  attain  that  power  in  which  discipline  consists?  How  shall 
the  objective  elements  of  learning  be  ordered  and  used  so  as  to  make 
the  desired  subjective  differences?  What  is  the  function  of  sub- 
ject matter?  Is  it  to  be  of  value  in  itself,  or  shall  it  be  chosen 
solely  with  a  view  to  discipline? 

Here  we  uncover  the  whole  controversy  concerning  formal  dis- 
cipline. Its  history  has  already  been  sufficiently  indicated  for  an 
understanding  of  its  present  status.  Today,  we  are  in  the  throes  of 
a  reaction  against  the  theory.  The  needs  of  society,  as  outlined  in 
the  last  chapter,  are  demanding  a  new  type  of  subject-matter,  prac- 
tical in  character  and  having  a  direct  bearing  on  the  needs  of  life. 
The  schools  have  been  loth  to  accept  this  material,  because  it  is 
supposed  to  lack  cultural  value.     Both  parties  have  gone  to  wide 

"' Joyner,  James  W.,  National  Educational  Association  Proceedings,  1916, 
p.  81. 

1"  Graves,  F.  P.,  History  of  Education.     New  York,  1909,  Vol.  I,  p.  189. 


64      The  Curriculum  of  the  Catholic  Elementary  School 

extremes.  The  advocates  of  culture  and  discipline  maintain  that 
the  chief  value  of  subject-matter  is  psychological  and  that  its 
function  is  to  develop  and  train  the  mind.  This  it  can  accom- 
plish better  if  it  is  not  practical  in  character,  for  it  should  deal  with 
values  that  are  transcendent  and  laws  which  are  general  and 
demand  a  certain  kind  of  effort  which  alone  can  educate.  The 
prophets  of  the  practical  claim  that  it  is  a  waste  of  time  to  force 
children  to  learn  things  whose  practical  advantage  they  cannot 
appreciate  and  in  which  they  are  not  interested  except  for  external 
reasons.  Disciplinary  education,  they  maintain,  is  merely  a 
matter  of  mental  gymnastics  and  is  advanced  as  an  excuse  for  its 
own  manifest  failures.  For  experience  shows  that  most  of  the 
knowledge  that  is  acquired  in  the  name  of  discipline  is  soon  lost 
and  fails  to  leave  tangible  trace.  In  explanation  of  this  fact,  a 
mystical  kind  of  general  competency  is  claimed,  some  sort  of  power 
of  soul  that  will  function  in  any  exigency. 

The  opponents  of  the  theory  of  formal  discipline  appeal  to 
psychology  in  confirmation  of  their  position.  They  maintain 
that  the  theory  is  based  on  a  misconception  of  the  nature  of  the 
mind,  the  doctrine  of  mental  faculties,  according  to  which  the 
soul  is  made  up  of  certain  definite  powers  or  faculties,  the  most 
important  of  which  are  cognition,  feeling  and  conation.  These 
constitute  the  principal  sources  of  mental  activity  and  in  them 
are  included  such  subordinate  faculties  as  memory,  imagination, 
reason,  perception,  attention,  etc.^^^  Modern  psychology  no 
longer  seriously  entertains  this  opinion,  for  "it  is  false  and  would 
be  useless  to  human  welfare  if  true."^^^ 

Now  the  division  of  the  mind  into  faculties  is  as  old  as  psychology 
itself.  The  moment  that  men  began  to  study  the  mind,  there  was 
a  necessity  for  classification.  Even  a  rude  classification  has  its 
use,  for  it  is  the  beginning  of  science.  The  study  of  consciousness 
at  once  reveals  the  existence  of  some  elements  that  very  greatly 
resemble  one  another,  and  others  that  differ  completely.  These 
resemblances  and  differences  are  the  basis  of  classification.  One 
of  the  earliest  divisions  was  that  into  reason,  will  and  desire. ^^'^ 
With  Plato  each  of  these  divisions  constitutes  something  very  much 

"°  Ackermann,  Edward,  Die  Formate  Bildung,  eine  Psychologisch-Pdda- 
gogische  Betrachtung.     Langensalza,  1898,  p.  2. 

^"  Thorndyke,  Edward  L.,  Educational  Psychology^  Briefer  Course.  New 
York,  1914,  p.  72. 

"'  Klemm,  Otto,  The  History  of  Psychology,  Wilm  and  Pintner  Translation. 
New  York,  1914,  p.  48. 


Discussion  of  Psychological  and  Social  Foundations    65 

like  a  special  soul.  Aristotle  maintained  that  there  is  one  vital 
principle  {^pvxv)  endowed  with  five  genera  of  faculties,  the  division 
being  based  on  the  five  stages  of  biological  development.  There 
is  the  vegetative  faculty  which  is  concerned  with  the  needs  of 
organic  life;  the  locomotive  faculty  which  presides  over  movement; 
the  faculty  of  sense  perception,  including  sensation  and  imagina- 
tion; the  appetite,  or  tendency  to  good;  and  finally,  reason. ^^ 

The  Scholastics  followed  Aristotle's  division.  According  to 
Scholastic  doctrine,  body  and  soul  are  united  in  one  complete 
substance;  the  soul,  the  substantial  form,  being  the  principle 
and  source  of  all  activities,  biological  and  physiological  as  well  as 
psychological.  St.  Thomas  makes  a  greater  distinction  than  did 
Aristotle,  between  sensuous  appetite  and  rational  appetite,  or 
will.^^  The  soul  is  the  substance,  the  faculties  accidents.  There 
are  cognitive  capabilities  of  the  sensuous  order,  the  intellect, 
or  faculty  of  rational  knowledge,  and  two  kinds  of  appetite.  The 
feelings  or  emotions  are  complex  products,  made  up  of  cognitive 
and  appetitive  elements,  or  mere  aspects  of  such  energies.^^ 

John  Locke  substituted  the  notion  of  power  for  faculty  and  was 
the  first  to  urge  against  the  concept  of  faculty,  the  objections  which 
are  current  today.  Leibniz  advanced  the  theory  of  actual  ten- 
dencies and  his  lead  was  followed  by  Christian  Wolff  (1679-1754). 
Wolff  held  that  the  *'vis  representativa "  is  the  fundamental 
power  of  the  soul.  This  it  is  that  transforms  the  powers  or  pos- 
sibilities of  the  soul,  the  faculties,  into  actualities.  The  faculties, 
at  first  mere  possibilities,  become  attributes  of  the  soul  and  bear 
the  same  relation  to  the  mind  as  the  bodily  organs  to  the  body. 
He  distinguishes  four  faculties,  cognition,  desire,  sense  and  reason. 
Each  of  these  faculties  has  enough  of  intelligence  about  it  to  co- 
operate with  the  others. ^^  This  notion  is  no  doubt  responsible  for 
much  of  the  misunderstanding  prevalent  today  and  for  the  ex- 
tremes taken  by  the  opponents  of  faculty  psychology. 

The  faculty  of  feeling  was  added  by  Tetens,  (1736-1805)  who 
proposed  a  new  pair  of  fundamental  faculties,  receptivity  and 
activity.  The  first  included  feeling,  the  second,  the  various 
activities  of  the  will,  inner  as  well  as  outer. '^^    Thus  was  originated 

^"  Klemm,  Otto,  The  History  of  Psychology,  p.  48.     Also  Maher,  Michael, 
Psychology,  Empirical  and  Rational.     New  York,  1915  (Eighth  Edition),  p.  88. 
*"  St.  Thomas,  Summa  Theologica.     Pars  Prima,  Qu.  80,  a.  2. 
*"  Maher,  Michael,  Psychology — Empirical  and  Rational,  p.  34. 
^*«  Klemm,  Otto,  The  History  of  Psychology,  p.  60. 
»7  Ibid,,  p.  62. 


66      The  Curriculum  of  the  Catholic  Elementary  School 

the  tripartite  division  into  feeling,  cognition  and  will,  a  division 
adopted  by  Kant  and  most  psychologists  since  his  time. 

The  turning  point  in  the  history  of  faculty  psychology  came  with 
Herbart  who  proposed  two  objections  to  Kant's  notion.  (1) 
Mental  faculties  are  mere  class  concepts  derived  by  process  of 
abstraction.  (2)  They  are  nothing  more  than  possibilities  and 
are  not  found  among  the  facts  of  inner  experience.  In  the  content 
of  actual  experience,  we  distinguish  ideas,  but  not  a  faculty  of 
ideation,  particular  feelings,  not  a  faculty  of  feeling,  remem- 
brances, not  a  faculty  of  memory.  Herbart  substituted  the 
notion  of  power  which  differs  from  faculty  in  the  respect  that  it 
arises  as  a  necessary  result  of  appropriate  conditions.^^^ 

As  a  result  of  Herbart's  criticism  modern  psychologists  do  not 
recognize  the  faculty.  The  mind  is  no  longer  regarded  as  a 
unity  operating  by  means  of  certain  capabilities  and  powers,  but 
rather  as  a  bundle  of  tendencies  to  react  in  a  definite  way  to  definite 
situations.  Man  comes  into  the  world  with  a  fairly  well  organ- 
ized system  of  tendencies  to  feel  and  act.  These  tendencies 
respond  to  the  physiological  organization  of  the  neurones.  A 
neurone,  apart  from  education,  will  transmit  a  stimulus  to  the 
neurone  with  which  it  is  by  nature  most  closely  connected.  This 
is  the  basis  of  the  reflexes  and  instincts,  or  what  are  known  as 
unlearned  tendencies.  The  mind  is  by  nature  sensitive  to  a  certain 
situation;  it  responds  to  this  situation  naturally  and  unconsciously, 
because  a  bond  exists  between  the  situation  and  the  response. 

Now  in  the  course  of  experience,  some  of  these  bonds  are 
strengthened  through  the  operation  of  the  Law  of  Use.  That  is  to 
say,  if  a  man  responds  originally  to  a  situation,  the  connection 
between  the  situation,  S,  and  the  response,  R,  will  be  strengthened. 
If  on  the  other  hand,  the  connection  is  not  made  for  any  length  of 
time  between  S  and  R,  the  bond  will  be  weakened.  This  is  the 
Law  of  Disuse.  These  laws  are  sometimes  combined  under  the 
name  of  Law  of  Exercise.  Furthermore,  if  satisfaction  results 
from  the  making  of  a  response,  the  S-R  bond  will  be  strengthened ; 
if  annoyance  results,  it  will  be  weakened.  This  is  the  Law  of 
Effect.  ^^^  It  is  the  function  of  education  to  supply  the  proper  expe- 
riences or  situations  and  to  observe  the  Laws  of  Exercise  and 
Effect  in  calling  forth  the  right  responses.  Education  then  be- 
comes a  matter  of  modifying  native  S-R  bonds  and  building  up 

158  Ibid.,  p.  66. 

159  Thorndyke,  Edward  L.,  Educational  Psychology,  Briefer  Course,  p.  70. 


Discussion  of  Psychological  and  Social  Foundations    67 

new  ones.  This  is  the  educational  psychology  of  Edward  L. 
Thorndyke,  of  Columbia  University.  It  is  accepted  by  a  great 
number  of  writers  on  modern  pedagogy  and  is  the  basis  of  most  of 
the  work  done  at  Teachers  College,  Columbia  University. 

Of  course,  there  is  no  room  in  this  psychology  for  the  doctrine  of 
formal  discipline.  Education  is  a  matter  of  forming  appropriate 
S-R  bonds  and  these  bonds  are  always  more  or  less  specific. 
They  demand  a  definite  response  to  a  definite  situation.  There  is 
no  such  thing  as  training  the  judgment,  though  there  is  training 
of  specific  judgments.  The  memory  is  not  cultivated,  but  children 
are  trained  to  remember  certain  things.  "And  so  with  all  the 
other  mental  and  moral  virtues.  They  are  not  general,  but  obsti- 
nately particular.  What,  then,  is  the  net  result  of  all  this?  What 
but  that  we  must  abandon  all  talk  and  claim  of  general  mind- 
forming,  and  gladly  accept  the  more  humble  task  of  mind-inform- 
ing. The  several  studies  provide  not  opportunities  for  general 
training,  but  each  of  them  its  own  peculiar  opportunities  for 
special  training. "^^° 

Yet  the  discrediting  of  the  faculty  psychology  has  not  served 
to  down  effectually  the  doctrine  of  formal  discipline.  Conces- 
sions may  be  made  as  to  its  extreme  form.  Practical  ex- 
perience and  daily  observation  prove  that  training  in  mathe- 
matical reasoning  does  not  necessarily  make  for  power  to  reason 
well  in  other  lines.  Men  of  strong  will  and  dogged  determination 
in  affairs  of  business  and  state,  only  too  often  show  a  sorry  lack 
of  will  power  in  ruling  their  own  passions.  Yet  to  say  that  train- 
ing in  one  direction  has  absolutely  no  influence  in  any  other  direc- 
tion contradicts  the  most  obvious  results  of  education.  Schooling, 
in  whatever  line,  does  seem  to  make  some  difference  in  the  way  a 
man  conducts  himself  in  other  lines.  General  education  cannot  be 
a  myth  entirely.  Modern  experimental  psychology,  weary  of  a 
'priori  attempts  to  settle  the  problem,  has  turned  to  experiment 
with  the  result  that  we  have  an  illuminating  and  rather  con- 
siderable literature  on  the  subject  of  transfer  of  training.**^ 


"«  Moore,  Ernest  Carroll,  What  is  Education?     Boston,  1915,  p.  102. 

^"  Good  general  accounts  of  these  experiments  are  found  in  Colvin,  Stephen 
S.,  The  Learning  Process.  New  York,  1915.  Bagley,  William  Chandler, 
Educational  Values.  New  York,  1915.  Freeman,  Frank  N.,  How  Children 
Learn.     Boston,  1917. 

A  more  detailed  and  classified  description  is  contained  in  Hewins,  Nellie  P., 
The  Doctrine  of  Formal  Discipline  in  the  Light  of  Experimental  Investigation. 
Baltimore,  1916;  Educational  Psychology  Monograph,  No.  16. 


68      The  Curriculum  of  the  Catholic  Elementary  School 

The  experiments  made  to  date  may  be  divided  according  to  the 
aims  of  the  investigators  into  those  which  are  primarily  psycholo- 
gical and  those  which  are  primarily  pedagogical. ^^^  Among  the 
psychological  experiments,  there  are:  1.  Those  which  attempt  to 
determine  the  effect  of  one  kind  of  sensitiveness  on  other  kinds  of 
sensitiveness.  Best  known  are  the  tests  of  Thorndyke  and  Wood- 
worth  and  those  of  Coover  and  Angell.  The  former  attempted 
to  determine  the  influence  of  training  in  estimating  magnitudes 
of  the  same  general  sort  on  ability  to  estimate  similar  magni- 
tudes, such  as  lines  of  various  lengths,  areas  of  different  sizes, 
and  weights  of  different  degree.  They  also  tested  the  "influ- 
ence of  training  in  observing  words  containing  certain  combina- 
tions of  letters  or  some  other  characteristic,  on  the  general 
ability  to  observe  words. "^^^  They  concluded  that  it  is  misleading 
to  speak  of  sense  discrimination,  attention,  memory,  observation, 
etc.,  since  these  words  refer  to  multitudinous  individual  functions; 
that  improvement  in  any  single  mental  function  rarely  brings 
about  equal  improvement  in  any  other  function;  that  where  such 
improvement  seems  to  occur,  it  is  due  to  the  fact  that  there  were 
identical  elements  in  the  practice  series  and  the  final  test  series. 
Two  kinds  of  identity  are  always  involved,  identity  of  substance 
and  identity  of  procedure.  The  former  constitutes  the  objective 
element  in  transfer,  the  latter,  the  subjective  element.  The 
subjective  element  is  personal  and  is  dependent  upon  the  quality 
of  the  individual  mind  and  its  interests;  it  includes  methods  of 
learning,  attitudes  and  dispositions. ^^^ 

Coover  and  Angell  attempted  experiments  in  discrimination, 
for  the  purpose  of  determining  the  effect  of  special  exercises  on 
general  practice.^®^  Subjects  were  practiced  in  discriminating 
intensities  of  sound  and  then  tested  for  ability  to  discriminate 
shades  of  grey.  In  a  second  experiment,  the  effects  of  training  in 
sorting  cards  was  noted  on  '*  typewriter  reactions,"  or  ability  to 
react  properly  on  the  typewriter  when  certain  letters  were  exposed. 


1®  Hewins,  Nellie  P.,  The  Doctrine  of  Formal  Discipline  in  the  Light  of 
Experimental  Investigation,  p.  4. 

1**  Thorndyke,  E.  L.  and  Woodworth,  R.  S.,  "Improvement  in  Mental 
Functions."  Psychological  Review,  Vol.  VIII,  pp.  247-261;  384-395;  553- 
564. 

^"  Thorndyke,  Edward  L.,  Educational  Psychology.  New  York,  1913, 
Vol.  II.;  The  Psychology  of  Learning,  Ch.  XII. 

^^  Coover,  J.  E.  and  Angell,  Frank,  "  General  Practice  Effect  of  Special 
Exercise."     American  Journal  of  Psychology,  Vol.  XVIII,  1907,  pp.  328-340. 


Discussion  of  Psychological  and  Social  Foundations    69 

Transfer  was  noted  and  the  authors  conckided  from  test  and  intro- 
spection that  this  was  not  due  to  identical  elements,  but  to  the 
fact  that  the  subjects  formed  a  habit  of  divesting  the  process  of  all 
unessential  features  and  attending  only  to  the  essential.  Thus 
Coover  and  Angell  subscribe  to  the  doctrine  of  transfer.  They  are 
supported  by  the  experiments  of  Wallin,  Seashore  and  Jenner,  and 
Urbantschitsch.     Thorndyke  and  Woodworth  disagree. 

2.  Experiments  on  the  accuracy  of  voluntary  effort  and  the 
effect  of  special  training  on  the  general  rapidity  and  accuracy  of 
motor  adjustments.  These  experiments  have  not  produced  a 
great  amount  of  evidence  either  for  or  against  transfer.  The 
subjects  were  too  few  in  number  and  the  practice  too  much  like 
the  tests  to  warrant  any  trustworthy  conclusions.^*^ 

3.  Experiments  of  the  effect  of  special  training  on  the  general 
rapidity  and  accuracy  of  memorizing.  The  pioneer  test  of  this 
kind  was  that  made  by  James,  who  tested  the  capacity  of  five 
subjects  to  memorize  poetry  after  training  and  compared  it  with 
their  capacity  before  training.  He  concluded  against  improve- 
ment and  claimed  that  memory  could  not  be  improved  but  that 
"all  improvement  of  memory  consists  in  the  improvement  of  one's 
habitual  method  of  recording  facts.'*  The  experiments  lacked  the 
technique  and  scientific  character  that  would  be  necessary  to 
give  them  validity,  yet  because  of  the  prestige  of  their  author  they 
were  quite  widely  accepted  at  the  time.^®^ 

A  more  scientific  experiment  was  that  conducted  by  Ebert  and 
Meumann.  Training  tests  in  memorizing  series  of  letters,  non- 
sense syllables,  words,  Italian  words,  strophes  of  poetry  and  selec- 
tions of  prose  produced  improvement  in  memory.  They  concluded 
that  there  must  be  **a  sympathetic  interaction  of  allied  memory 
functions  based  on  assumed  psycho-physical  activity."^**  Although 
critics  of  the  experiment  hold  that  the  sole  cause  of  the  improve- 
ment was  the  increased  power  of  attention,  improvement  of  tech- 
nique, etc.,  which  the  authors  list  as  auxiliary  causes,  the  opinion 
of  the  investigators,  because  of  the  manner  in  which  the  tests  were 
conducted,  is  worthy  of  respectful  attention.  The  findings  of 
Bennett  and  Fracker  likewise  argue  in  favor  of  spread. ^'^ 

'«*  Hewins,  Nellie  P.,  The  Doctrine  of  Formal  Discipline  in  the  Light  of 
Experimental  Investigation,  pp.  15-25. 

1"  James,  William,  Principles  of  Psychology.     New  York,  1890,  Vol.  I,  p.  666. 

"«  Meumann,  E.,   The  Psychology  of  Learning,  Ch.  III.    New   York,    1913. 

"'  Hewins,  Nellie  P.,  The  Doctrine  of  Formal  Discipline  in  the  Light  of 
Experimental  Investigation,  pp.  25-28. 


70      The  Curriculum  of  the  Catholic  Elementary  School 

4.  Experiments  to  test  the  training  of  one  organ  upon  the 
bilaterally  symmetrical  one,  or  upon  a  closely  related  member. 
Eight  investigations  have  been  made  along  this  line  by  Davis, 
Scripture,  Raif,  Wallin,  Volkmann,  Swift,  Starch  and  Woodworth. 
Tests  were  made  with  the  hands,  fingers,  arms,  toes  and  eyes; 
no  experiment  was  made  upon  the  ears.  In  every  case  transfer 
was  found,  although  a  variety  of  explanations  was  advanced. ^^*^ 

The  pedagogical  experiments  have  been  conducted  in  the  fields 
of  mathematics,  spelling,  English  grammar  and  in  the  examination 
of  the  effects  of  training  on  mental  traits,  like:  memory,  habits, 
concentration  of  attention,  observation,  quickness,  accuracy, 
etc.,  ideas  of  method  and  ideals.  Rietz  and  Shade  studied  the 
correlation  between  the  grades  of  children  in  the  various  branches 
of  the  curriculum. ^'^  They  hoped  to  discover  the  existence  of 
reciprocal  relations  that  would  have  an  effect  upon  transfer. 
Using  the  methods  of  Galton  and  Pearson,  they  found  a  high 
correlation  between  mathematics  and  foreign  languages.  No 
transfer  was  indicated,  but  inasmuch  as  there  is  a  high  correlation 
between  these  branches,  there  is  at  least  some  probability  of 
transfer. 

Winch  prosecuted  a  study  of  the  accuracy  of  school  children,^^^ 
and  after  finding  a  high  positive  correlation  between  accuracy  in 
working  simple  sums  and  ability  in  solving  arithmetical  problems, 
felt  that  there  Was  not  enough  evidence  in  the  practice  tests  which 
he  conducted  simultaneously  to  argue  for  transfer  of  training. 
Accuracy  in  working  sums  does  not  necessarily  make  for  accuracy 
in  reasoning.  He  concludes :  "It  seems  to  be  possible  to  find  highly 
correlated  functions  which  appear  to  have  very  little  relationship 
of  a  pedagogical  value.  We  cannot  conclude  without  further 
inquiry  in  other  lines,  that  two  highly  correlated  mental  powers 
are  causally  related." 

Bagley  supervised  an  experiment  at  the  Montana  State  Normal 
College  for  the  purpose  of  discovering  whether  the  habit  of  pro- 
ducing neat  papers  in  arithmetic  would  produce  habits  of  neatness 
in  other  branches.     He  failed  to  find  the  slightest  improvement  in 

"o/6ti.,  pp.  28-31. 

"^  Rietz  and  Shade,  Correlation  of  Efficiency  in  Mathematics  and  Efficiency 
in  other  Subjects.  University  of  Illinois,  University  Studies,  Vol.  Ill,  No.  1. 
November,  1908. 

"2  Winch,  W.  H.,  "Does  Improvement  in  Numerical  Accuracy  Transfer"? 
Journal  of  Educational  Psychology,  Vol.  I,  1910,  pp.  557-589;  Vol.  II,  1911, 
pp.  262-271. 


Discussion  of  Psychological  arid  Social  Foundations    71 

language  and  spelling  papers,  though  there  was  marked  improve- 
ment in  the  arithmetic  papers. ^^^  He  suggested  that  the  failure 
to  secure  transfer  was  due  to  the  fact  that  the  habit  of  neatness  had 
not  been  made  a  conscious  ideal  in  the  minds  of  the  children.  This 
was  followed  out  by  Ruediger,  who  found  that  when  the  ideal  was 
made  conscious,  transfer  was  achieved.  "In  general,  the  value  of 
specific  habits  under  a  change  of  condition,  depends  directly  on  the 
presence  of  a  general  idea,  which  would  serve  for  their  control."^'* 

This  conclusion  was  further  emphasized  by  Judd  in  his  experi- 
ment on  the  effect  of  practice  as  determined  by  the  knowledge  of 
results. ^^^  A  number  of  children  were  required  to  attempt  to  hit 
with  a  small  dart,  a  target  which  was  placed  under  12  inches  of 
water.  It  was  found  that  when  one  group  was  instructed  as  to 
the  deflection  of  light  through  refraction,  they  were  more  successful 
when  the  depth  of  the  target  was  increased  to  4  feet  than  were 
another  and  uninstructed  group.  The  knowledge  of  conditions 
gave  an  idea  of  method  which  resulted  in  transfer. 

Dallenbach  experimented  on  the  concentration  of  attention. 
His  problem  was  to  find  the  effect  of  a  daily  drill  of  fifteen  minutes 
on  charts  of  numbers,  letters,  words,  geometrical  figures,  etc., 
conducted  during  a  period  of  seventeen  weeks.  A  striking  rise 
in  the  school  grades  of  the  children  resulted  during  the  following 
school  term.  He  concluded  that  the  evidence  justified  a  restricted 
belief  in  formal  discipline.^^^ 

It  remains  to  note  the  experiment  made  by  Dr.  Hewins,  in  her 
capacity  as  Instructor  in  Biology  at  Newlon  High  School,  New 
York  City.  Dr.  Hewins  felt  that  more  enlightening  results  might 
be  obtained  if  investigators  would  work  with  children  in  their 
formative  years,  rather  than  with  adults  in  psychological  labora- 
tories. For  the  ordinary  conditions  of  transfer  are  present  before 
habits  are  formed  and  the  mind  has  lost  much  of  its  plasticity. 
She  chose  as  her  field  the  study  of  the  effects  of  training  on  the 
powers  of  observation,  largely  because  she  could  thus  pursue  the 

"'  Bagley,  William  Chandler,  The  Educative  Process.  New  York,  1917, 
p.  208. 

*^*  Ruediger,  W,  C,  "The  Indirect  Improvement  of  Mental  Functions 
through  Ideals."     Educational  Review,  Vol.  XXXVI,  1908,  pp.  364-371. 

'^' Anpell,  Pillsbury  and  Judd,  "The  Doctrine  of  Formal  Discipline  in  the 
Light  of  the  Principles  of  General  Psychology."  Educational  Review,  Vol. 
XXXVI,  June,  1908,  pp.  1-42. 

"•Dallenbach,  K.  M.,  "The  Effect  of  Practice  upon  Visual  Apprehension 
in  School  Children."  Educational  Psychology,  Vol.  VI,  pp.  321-334;  Vol.  VII, 
pp.  387-404. 


72      The  Curriculum  of  the  Catholic  Elementary  School 

experiment  in  her  own  class-room.  The  subjects  of  the  experi- 
ment were  pupils,  boys  and  girls,  in  the  first  term  of  their  Freshman 
year  at  High  School.  Their  ages  varied  from  twelve  to  seventeen. 
Three  series  of  tests  were  given,  the  first  daily  from  April  22  to 
April  30;  the  second,  from  June  3  to  June  11;  the  third,  from 
November  4  to  November  11.  The  practice  series  was  given  on 
ten  school  days  from  May  15-28.  The  practice  series  consisted 
of  observation  of  biological  material,  which  was  exposed  to  the 
children,  who  were  then  allowed  ten  minutes  to  write  a  description. 
In  every  case  the  material  consisted  of  a  flower — the  lilac,  the 
dogwood,  the  buttercup,  etc.  The  test  series  included  some 
biological  and  some  non-biological  material.  The  latter  consisted 
of  pictures,  syllables,  nonsense  figures,  geometrical  figures  and 
figures  in  the  air.  These  w^ere  exposed  to  the  children  and  they 
were  given  a  certain  time  to  write  a  description.  The  aim  was  to 
discover  if  the  practice  in  observing  the  biological  material  of  the 
practice  series  would  improve  the  observation  of  the  biological 
material   of  the  test  series,  and  particularly  of  the  non-biological. 

The  experiment  was  carried  out  carefully,  due  allowance  being 
made  for  all  contributory  causes.  One- half  of  the  class  were 
practiced.  The  results  show  an  improvement  of  the  practiced 
half  over  the  unpracticed  in  the  test  series,  both  in  the  biological 
and  non-biological  material.  "It  is  evident  from  these  general 
summaries  and  comparisons  that  the  practiced  pupils  have  done 
better  in  the  second  and  third  series  than  the  unpracticed.  The 
question  difiicult  to  solve  is:  *What  is  the  cause .f^'  No  doubt 
growth,  familiarity  with  procedure,  benefits  of  class-work  and 
study,  and  desire  to  excel,  have  all  contributed  their  share  toward 
the  gain,  but  these  factors  may  have  aided  both  sides  equally. 
We  have  no  means  of  telling.     Then  why  the  difference.'^" 

"Feeling  that  the  balance  of  arguments  and  scientific  proofs 
were  against  formal  discipline  when  this  investigation  was  begun, 
I  am  forced  by  the  results  obtained  to  admit  that  in  this  experiment, 
the  proof  seems  to  be  on  the  affirmative  side."^^^ 

The  significant  fact  about  all  these  experiments,  and  many 
others  which  we  might  mention,  is  that  all  without  exception 
show  that  some  transfer  is  possible.     Of  course,  the  fact  of  transfer 


"'  Hewins,  Nellie,  P.,  The  Doctrine  of  Formal  Discipline  in  the  Light  of 
Experimental  Evidence,  p.  112.  Part  II,  pp.  49-144,  contains  a  complete 
account  of  the  experiment  with  tabulated  results. 


Discussion  of  Psychological  and  Social  Foundations    73 

is  ascribed  to  other  causes,  such  as  method  in  recording  facts 
(James),  the  functioning  of  identical  elements  (Thorndyke),  etc. 
But  even  granting  that  these  factors  contribute,  it  remains  un- 
deniable that  there  is  such  a  thing  as  transfer.  The  explanations 
advanced  might  well  serve  as  the  basis  of  further  discussion; 
meanwhile  they  serve  to  throw  light  on  educational  method.  The 
findings  of  James  and  Thorndyke,  which  by  the  way  bear  some 
evidence  of  having  been  fitted  into  preconceived  notions,  were  too 
readily  accepted  by  some  schoolmen.  The  result  has  been  the 
specific-training  idea,  which  threatens  to  involve  us  in  a  situation 
where  real  culture  will  be  sacrificed  to  narrow  specialized  efficiency. 
The  argument  against  the  dogma  of  formal  discipline  which  is 
based  on  the  discrediting  of  the  faculty  psychology  is  an  empty 
one  and  lacks  anything  like  conclusiveness.  First  of  all,  if  the 
faculty  theory  is  rightly  understood  it  is  not  as  absurd  as  is  gen- 
erally impHed.  Every  science  classifies  the  phenomena  with  which 
it  has  to  work,  and  psychology  in  its  study  of  consciousness  will 
arrive  nowhere  should  it  fail  to  note  the  likenesses  and  differences 
in  conscious  phenomena.  Again,  mental  states  are  complex  and 
they  cannot  be  properly  understood  unless  they  are  analyzed. 
Such  analysis  is  bound  to  discover  certain  primary  modes  and 
activities  that  cannot  be  further  reduced  and  which  for  want  of  a 
better  word,  we  may  call  faculties.  The  mistake  comes  when 
psychology  advances  too  ready  an  opinion  as  to  the  nature  of  these 
faculties.  The  question  is  profoundly  metaphysical;  it  touches  on 
the  question  of  the  nature  of  the  soul  and  its  relations  as  a  sub- 
stance. Crude  attempts  at  expression  have  resulted  in  a  too- 
material  concept  of  a  highly  spiritual  fact.  A  faculty  is  nothing 
more  than  the  mind's  capability  for  performing  a  particular  kind 
of  activity.  There  are  real  differences  in  psychical  activity;  this 
is  evident  from  a  consideration  of  the  diversity  of  the  objects 
toward  which  the  such  activity  is  directed.  The  mind's  reaction 
to  color  differs  profoundly  from  its  reaction  to  reasoned  argument. 
This  difference  of  reaction  to  different  stimuli  is  an  index  of  a 
difference  of  mode  in  activity.  A  faculty  is  a  mode  of  mental 
activity  which  is  different  from  any  other  mode  of  mental 
activity.^^^ 


^''  Maher,  Michael,  Psychology,  Empirical  and  Rational,  pp.  23-40.  Also 
Catholic  Encyclopedia,  "Faculties  of  the  Soul,"  Vol.  V,  p.  740,  and  St.  Thomas, 
Summa  Theologica,  Pars  Prima,  Qu.  77,  art.  3. 


74      The  Curriculum  of  the  Catholic  Elementary  School 

If  it  be  borne  in  mind,  with  the  scholastics,  that  a  faculty  is  not 
a  part  of  the  soul,  or  an  independent  separate  agent,  or  a  group  of 
conscious  states  of  a  particular  kind,  but  that  it  is  simply  a  special 
mode  through  which  the  mind  acts — that  it  is  the  soul  itself  operat- 
ing in  a  certain,  peculiar  way — there  is  little  room  for  quibble. 
The  denial  of  the  faculty  theory  is  largely  based  on  a  metaphysical 
assumption,  namely  the  denial  of  the  existence  of  the  soul  a^  a 
unitary  agent  working  in  and  through  the  whole  psychic  mechanism 
and  related  thereto  as  form  is  related  to  matter,  and  the  substitu- 
tion of  a  notion  of  the  mind  as  an  aggregate  or  succession  of 
conscious  processes.  The  new  psychology  which  studies  mental 
functions  and  has  no  room  for  mental  structures,  would  naturally 
deny  the  existence  of  faculties,  no  matter  how  they  might  be 
understood. 

But  whether  we  hold  the  faculty  theory  or  not,  we  cannot  disre- 
gard the  facts  concerning  the  transfer  of  training.  Long  before 
the  relation  between  psychology  and  education  had  been  worked 
out,  the  common  opinion  of  mankind  subscribed  to  the  notion  of 
formal  discipline.  Locke,  for  example,  is  hailed  as  the  father  of 
the  theory,  yet  Locke  was  among  the  first  to  question  the  faculty 
hypothesis.  The  traditional  arguments  in  favor  of  the  doctrine 
were  based  not  on  psychological  grounds,  but  on  experience. 
Later  on  when  the  doctrine  was  attacked  its  proponents  invoked 
the  faculty  argument.  Colvin  insists  that  the  faculty  hypothesis 
is  not  basal  to  belief  in  transfer.  "Naturally  when  the  doctrine 
was  first  formulated  it  was  stated  in  terms  of  the  psychology  then 
current.  It  could  be  stated  in  terms  of  the  up-to-date  functional 
psychology  almost  as  well.  This  seems  to  be  the  common  mis- 
take that  the  opponents  of  transfer  generally  make,  namely,  the 
assumption  that  because  the  doctrine  of  formal  discipline  first 
appeared  in  the  setting  of  the  faculty  psychology,  it  must  of 
necessity  be  invalidated  with  the  passing  of  that  psychology. 
With  equal  justification  from  logic,  one  might  argue  that  because 
the  belief  in  heaven  was  originally  coupled  with  the  old  Ptolemaic 
conception  of  the  universe,  this  belief  was  destroyed  when  the 
Copernican  system  superseded  the  old  cosmological  ideas. '*^^^ 

What  then  is  the  present  status  of  the  doctrine  of  formal  disci- 
pline? First,  the  arguments  alleged  against  it  from  the  stand- 
point of  the  faculty  hypothesis  are  invalid.     Secondly,  experi- 

"3  Colvin,  Stephen  S.,  The  Learning  Process,  p.  236. 


Discussion  of  Psychological  and  Social  Foundations    75 

mental  evidence,  far  from  discrediting  it,  seems  to  confirm  it.  The 
question  then  is  still  an  open  one,  and  in  the  absence  of  more  con- 
clusive data,  it  would  be  foolhardy  to  rule  it  out  of  court.  All 
great  thinkers  of  the  past  have  assumed  it  without  question,  and 
though  their  assumption  may  have  lacked  scientific  finality,  it  was 
based  on  observation  of  the  evident  facts  of  life.  Culture  is  a 
phenomenon  that  cannot  be  overlooked,  and  the  relation  between 
culture  and  certain  kinds  of  mental  activity  is  evident.  There  is 
a  narrowness  of  mind  that  is  consequent  upon  failure  to  receive  a 
broad  training.  Practical  efficiency  only  too  often  goes  hand  in 
hand  with  purblind  intelligence.  Familiarity  with  things  that 
transcend  daily  experience,  with  pure  science,  history,  literature 
and  the  fine  arts,  puts  its  stamp  upon  the  mind.  Unless  we  are 
willing  to  admit  that  the  culture  we  find  in  life  is  entirely  due  to 
inherited  dispositions,  we  must  agree  that  there  can  be  such  a 
thing  as  general  education,  which  is  another  name  for  formal 
discipline. 

Of  course,  no  man  would  deny  that  great  educational  crimes 
have  been  and  are  committed  in  the  name  of  discipline  and  culture. 
If  the  emphasis  today  is  upon  content  as  against  form,  upon 
object  as  against  subject,  upon  things  learned  as  against  the  learn- 
ing, it  is  because  of  the  ill  effects  of  over-emphasis  in  the  other 
direction.  School  programs  have  been  cluttered  with  no  end  of 
formal  material  to  the  exclusion  of  practical  elements  that  are 
absolutely  in  demand.  If  the  classics  are  attacked  today,  if 
pure  science  is  in  bad  repute  and  pure  mathematics  deemed  a 
waste  of  time,  it  is  largely  because  of  the  formalism  that  has 
dominated  the  teaching  of  these  subjects  and  the  failure  to  work 
out  their  practical  implications.  For  if  a  subject  is  properly 
taught,  be  it  ever  so  abstract  and  cultural,  it  will  yield  practical 
advantage.  By  the  same  token,  no  matter  how  utilitarian  a 
branch  may  be,  it  may  be  made  to  serve  the  ends  of  culture.  The 
maxim  should  not  be,  **  Teach  so  that  the  subject  may  be  learned 
and  turned  to  practical  advantage;"  nor  "Teach  so  that  spiritual 
power  may  be  increased,  developed  and  enlarged."  Rather  it 
should  be,  "Teach  so  that  while  the  matter  is  learned  and 
turned  to  practical  advantage,  the  powers  of  the  mind  are  de- 
veloped, refined  and  brought  to  the  highest  possible  degree  of 
culture."  i8« 

"°  Willmann,  Otto,  Didaktik,  Vol.  II,  p.  59. 


76      The  Curriculmn  of  the  Catholic  Elementary  School 

This  brings  us  face  to  face  with  the  necessity  of  defining 
culture.  Culture  is  not  mere  grace,  a  superficial  manner  that 
comes  of  acquaintance  with  the  finer  things  of  life  and  fa- 
miliarity with  art  and  literature.  It  is  more  than  ease  in  conversa- 
tion and  poise  in  absolving  social  obligations.  It  is  not  the  exclu- 
sive heritage  of  those  who  command  the  resources  to  enjoy  an 
undisturbed  leisure.  It  does  not  disdain  toil  and  labor  and 
may  be  as  much  at  home  in  the  heart  of  the  artisan  as  in  the  soul 
of  the  debutante.  It  is  not  solely  intellectual,  consisting  of  a  wide 
range  of  information;  it  is  not  merely  emotional,  a  matter  of 
savoir  faire.     In  a  word,  culture  is  not  a  mere  embellishment  of  life. 

Culture  is  power  born  of  the  symmetrical  development  of  all 
the  faculties  of  the  individual.  It  is  the  habitual  tendency  to  do 
not  the  nice  thing,  but  the  right  thing.  It  is  the  expression  of 
Christian  charity.  Though  its  primary  function  is  the  improve- 
ment of  self,  it  is  of  necessity  altruistic;  for  true  culture  is  only 
possible  where  there  is  the  readiness  to  subordinate  selfish  impulse 
to  the  common  good.  It  does  not  need  the  setting  of  the  drawing 
room  to  display  its  glory;  it  is  as  beautiful  in  the  workshop.  Dewey 
defines  it  as  "the  capacity  for  constantly  expanding  in  range  and 
accuracy,  one's  perception  of  meanings. "^^^  If  we  understand 
this  definition  rightly,  we  see  how  culture  implies  on  the  one 
hand,  an  openness  and  plasticity  of  mind  that  preclude  narrowness 
and  prejudice,  and  on  the  other  a  growing  and  deepening  knowledge 
of  men  and  things,  of  facts  and  relations,  both  of  which  operate  to 
produce  a  fulness  of  life,  spent  not  in  the  interests  of  self,  of  ambi- 
tion, of  wealth,  but  for  the  glory  of  God  and  the  good  of  fellow- 
man. 

Culture  includes  a  two-fold  element,  the  one  receptive,  the  other 
conative.  First  of  all  there  must  be  a  broad  and  comprehensive 
knowledge  of  the  general  and  basic  facts  of  human  experience. 
It  should  include  the  present  as  well  as  the  past.  It  must  not  be 
superficial  or  confined  to  just  certain  lines  of  thought.  The  cul- 
tured man  may  be  a  specialist,  but  he  must  have  enough  general 
knowledge  to  emancipate  him  from  the  thraldom  of  his  specialty. 
He  must  be  able  to  view  life  broadly  and  not  have  his  vision  dis- 
torted by  narrow,  specific  interests.^^^ 

Nor  dare  this  knowledge  be  superficial,  of  a  chatty,  informational 

^*^  Dewey,  John,  Democracy  and  Education,  p.  145. 

*^  Cooley,  Chas.  H.,  "A  Primary  Culture  for  Democracy."  Publications  of 
the  American  Sociological  Society,  Vol.  XIII,  p.  1. 


Discussion  of  Psychological  and  Social  Foundations    77 

character.  Mere  information  makes  for  conceit.  It  is  carried 
along  in  the  memory  and  does  not  function  in  Hfe;  it  becomes  a 
means  of  vain  display.  True  knowledge,  on  the  other  hand,  is 
knowledge  that  has  been  assimilated,  that  has  become  part  and 
parcel  of  one's  very  being.  Newman  says,  *'A  man  may  hear  a 
thousand  lectures  and  read  a  thousand  volumes  and  be  at  the  end 
very  much  as  he  was  as  regards  knowledge.  Something  more  than 
admitting  it  in  a  negative  way  into  the  mind  is  necessary,  if  it  is 
to  remain  there.  It  must  not  be  passively  received,  but  actively 
entered  into,  embraced,  mastered.  The  mind  must  go  half  way 
to  meet  what  comes  from  without. "^^^ 

The  power  over  information  and  experience  that  we  call  knowl- 
edge demands  coordination.  Meanings  can  only  be  "expanded 
in  range  and  accuracy"  if  they  are  seen  in  their  proper  perspective. 
The  quality  of  unrelated  knowledge  is  always  evident.  It  stamps 
the  bore  and  the  prig,  the  man  whose  memory  is  overloaded  with 
facts  over  which  he  seems  to  have  no  control  and  who  as  a  conse- 
quence has  no  judgment  of  the  fitness  of  things.  Says  Dr.  Shields: 
*'The  mind  must  be  able  to  turn  instantly  from  subject  to  subject 
as  the  necessity  of  the  social  situation  demands.  The  cultured 
man  is  keenly  sensitive  to  the  play  of  thought  and  feeling  in  the 
social  group  in  which  he  moves  and  he  responds  to  it  without 
apparent  effort.  However  indispensable  concentrated  attention 
may  be  in  order  to  reach  the  solution  of  any  problem  of  present 
interest,  culture  demands  the  added  power  of  shifting  the  attention 
with  ease  and  grace  from  topic  to  topic  so  as  to  meet  the  social 
situation  and  yield  pleasure  and  profit  to  the  group. "^'^^ 

The  proper  control  of  knowledge  calls  for  the  cultivation  of  the 
imagination.  Practical  people  sometimes  regard  the  imagination 
a  bit  askance  because  they  feel  that  it  is  the  source  of  idleness  and 
empty  dreaming.  This  may  be  true  in  some  cases;  even  the 
reason  may  be  abused.  The  fact  that  the  imagination  may  be 
open  to  abuse  only  proves  the  necessity  of  educating  it  properly. 
For  the  imagination  plays  a  very  important  role  in  human  life.  It 
is  the  basis  of  love,  because  it  is  the  basis  of  sympathy.  It  enables 
us  to  enter  into  the  thoughts  and  feelings  of  others,  of  enjoying 
vicarious  experience.  It  shows  us  the  possible  effect  upon 
others  of  the  things  we  say  or  do  and  makes  us  cautious  of  the 

*"  Newman,  John  Henry,  The  Idea  of  a  University,  p.  489. 
'"  Shields,  Thomas  E.,  Philosophy  of  Education,  p.  249. 


78      The  Curriculum  of  the  Catholic  Elementary  School 

manner  in  which  we  advance  our  opinions.  It  helps  us  to  place 
the  best  interpretation  on  the  actions  of  our  neighbor.  Many  a 
good  thought  has  proven  unfruitful  because  there  was  lacking 
enough  imagination  to  foresee  that  unless  skilfully  advanced,  it 
would  provoke  antagonism  rather  than  sympathy.  Many  an  un- 
just condemnation  has  been  passed,  because  there  was  lack  of 
vision  broad  and  deep  enough  to  discover  hidden  motives. 

So  much  for  the  cognitive  side  of  culture.  Were  culture  this 
and  nothing  more  it  might  well  result  in  pride  and  hardness  of 
heart,  for  knowledge  has  a  way  of  puffing  up.  The  cultured  main 
must  not  only  know,  he  must  feel.  His  knowledge  must  be  shot 
through  with  right  emotion.  True  sympathy  requires  imagina- 
tion; but  it  likewise  demands  reaction  to  imagination.  Feeling 
is  the  great  motive  power  of  human  life,  the  source  of  all  energy. 
Without  it  knowledge  is  barren  and  culture  impossible. 

Emotion  may  easily  become  an  enemy  of  the  mind.  It  may 
result  in  sentimentalism,  an  appreciation  of  values  without  any 
concern  for  the  price  of  their  acquisition.  Hence  emotion  must 
be  controlled.  This  control  is  effected  partly  by  knowledge  and 
partly  by  the  building  up  of  the  proper  habits,  attitudes  and  appre- 
ciations. Moral  philosophy  lists  the  passions  among  the  possible 
impediments  to  the  free  action  of  the  will.  They  are  the  well- 
springs  of  human  action  and  unless  they  are  effectually  subordi- 
nated to  reason  and  controlled  by  habit,  they  become  a  source  of 
disaster  to  the  individual  and  the  group. 
^  The  virtue  of  obedience  is  fundamental  to  true  culture.  It  in 
^^urn  implies  humility,  and  Christian  asceticism,  the  best  system 
of  character  formation  ever  devised,  postulates  humility  as  the 
first  requisite  to  growth  in  holiness.  The  first  thing  that  a  cul- 
tured man  must  realize  is  his  own  place  in  the  essential  order  of 
things  and  the  duties  of  service  that  are  incumbent  on  him.  He 
must  be  disposed  to  accept  the  guidance  of  authority  and  bring 
his  soul  captive  to  higher  powers.  This  implies  discipline,  self- 
control,  self -direction  and  often  self-sacrifice.  Humility,  docility  ,^ 
obedience  are  functions  of  the  will;  they  are  the  evidences  of  pur- 
posive action. ^^^ 

The  effect  of  culture  on  the  individual  is  the  development  of 


185  Bagley,   William   C,   "Duty  and   Discipline  in   Education."      Teachers 
College  Record,  Vol.  XIX,  No.  5,  p.  419. 


Discussion  of  Psychological  and  Social  Foundations    79 

true  character,  which  implies  knowledge  raised  to  the  dignity  of 
the  ideal  by  reason  of  proper  emotional  reaction  and  of  habits 
built  up  in  conformity  with  these  ideals.  The  result  is  power,  the 
ability  to  so  control  the  desires,  impulses  and  feelings,  that 
the  will  may  enjoy  the  largest  measure  of  freedom. 

True  culture  is  not  an  affair  of  higher  education.  Its  seed  must 
be  planted  deep  down  in  the  heart  of  the  developing  child  at  the 
very  time  that  his  conscious  powers  are  awakening.  Culture  is  as 
much  a  concern  of  the  elementary  school  as  of  the  high  school. 
Hence  all  the  elements  which  enter  into  the  constitution  of  true 
culture  should  be  fostered  from  the  primary  grades  up.  This  is 
impossible  where  the  function  of  the  elementary  school  is  inter- 
preted narrowly,  where  it  is  regarded  as  an  institution  for  training 
in  the  school  arts  and  in  the  rules  of  conventional  politeness.^®® 
The  "capacity  to  expand  in  range  and  accuracy  one's  perception 
of  meanings,"  must  be  developed  from  the  beginning  if  it  is  to  be 
developed  at  all. 

In  this  discussion  of  the  relation  between  subject-matter  and 
the  individual,  we  have  attempted  to  show  that  the  choice  of 
subject-matter  should  be  dictated  by  individual  as  well  as  social 
needs,  that  discipline  or  general  education  is  possible,  that  culture 
consists  of  certain  definite  elements.  But  it  would  be  a  mistake 
to  think  that  there  is  some  automatic  and  mysterious  process 
whereby  subject-matter  effects  the  desired  differences  in  the  mind 
of  the  child.  Educational  science  has  proven  that  there  are  laws 
underlying  the  process  of  learning  and  these  laws  must  be  sought 
out  and  obeyed.  They  form  the  foundation  of  method,  and 
subject-matter  without  method  is  bound  to  be  an  ineffective 
instrument.  Now  the  studies  of  transfer  of  training  have  demon- 
strated that  there  are  certain  conditions  which,  when  placed,  will 
facilitate  ** spread."  One  of  these  is  that  the  elements  to  be 
transferred  should  be  made  conscious. ^^^  The  child  may  acquire 
habits  of  close  observation  from  nature  study,  for  example,  only 
if  the  teacher  takes  care  to  point  out  and  insist  upon  the  general 
advantages  of  such  observation.  There  must  be  an  ideal  which 
transcends  the  task  at  hand  and  which  aids  the  child  to  see  the 
work  he  is  doing  in  its  broad  perspective.  Motivation  will  thus 
be  given  to  an  effort  which  otherwise  might  well  be  distasteful  and 

^w  Shields,  Thomas  E.,  Philosophy  of  Education,  p.  254. 

^"  Vide  supra,  experiments  of  Bagley,  Ruediger,  Judd,  etc. 


80      The  Curriculum  of  the  Catholic  Elementary  School 

unproductive  of  any  lasting  results.  This  ideal  will  then  function 
in  other  situations,  even  though  the  subject-matter  be  quite  differ- 
ent and  the  specific  aim  of  an  entirely  different  nature.^^^ 

Secondly,  the  method  and  technique  of  learning  should  be  made 
explicit  and  conscious.  Better  habits  of  attention,  improved 
methods  of  memorizing,  divesting  the  work  of  non-essential  ele- 
ments, were  some  of  the  factors  that  the  investigators  mentioned 
as  aiding  in  transfer.^^^  There  is  no  reason  why  children  should 
not  be  instructed  in  the  technique  of  learning.  They  would  thus 
acquire  correct  habits  of  study  that  would  enable  them  to  work 
independently  and  solve  their  own  problems,  whether  in  school  or 
in  later  life.  Much  is  being  written  and  attempted  nowadays 
by  way  of  teaching  children  to  study.^^^  The  importance  of  this 
phase  of  education  cannot  be  over-emphasized.  It  is  one  of  the 
best  ways  of  securing  lasting  results. 

Thirdly,  Thorndyke  and  Woodworth  have  insisted  that  transfer 
is  only  possible  where  there  are  identical  elements. ^^^  Now 
whether  we  agree  with  them  or  not,  when  they  account  for  all 
transfer  on  this  basis,  we  must  admit  that  where  there  are  identical 
elements,  the  odds  in  favor  of  transfer  are  greatly  improved.  By 
identical  elements,  we  may  mean  identity  of  procedure.  This  was 
sufficiently  indicated  in  the  foregoing  paragraph.  Or  we  may 
mean  objective  identity,  or  identity  of  matter.  Thus,  for  example, 
there  are  common  elements  in  arithmetic  and  nature  study,  in 
drawing  and  manual  training,  in  history  and  geography.  Again 
grammar  and  arithmetic  are  alike  in  that  they  require  abstraction 
and  reasoning;  there  are  common  elements  in  the  various  phases 
of  arithmetic,  as  in  addition  and  multiplication,  fractions  and 
divisions,  etc.  All  of  these  should  be  brought  out,  and  they  can 
be  brought  out  if  the  work  is  properly  correlated.  Correlation  of 
subject-matter  is  absolutely  necessary  for  thorough  and  economical 
learning.  It  makes  for  that  coordination  of  knowledge  which 
was  mentioned  as  one  of  the  essentials  of  culture. 

But  what  of  the  effort  which  we  have  always  been  told  is  the 
only  royal  road  to  education.^  It  is  still  required,  but  it  has 
become  intelligent.     The  mere  fact  that  a  task  is  hard  does  not 

188  Bagley,  William  C,  Educational  Values,  p.  190. 

189  Vide  supra,  the  experiments  of  Coover  and  Angell,  Ebert  and  Meumann, 
etc. 

"OEarhart,  Lida  B.,  Types  of  Teaching.     Boston,  1915,  p.  192. 
1"  Vide  supra,  the  experiments  of  Thorndyke  and  Woodworth. 


Discussion  of  Psychological  and  Social  Foundations    81 

mean  that  it  is  educative.  Effort  is  necessary  for  the  building  up 
of  character,  but  it  should  have  some  relation  to  reality.  Motiva- 
tion is  indispensable  in  any  true  scheme  of  education.  Merely  to 
tell  children  that  they  must  do  this  thing  which  is  difficult  and 
distasteful,  because  thereby  they  are  to  become  strong-willed  men 
of  character,  is  not  a  rational  method  of  procedure.  It  discourages 
and  dissipates  attention  as  often  as  it  inspires  and  makes  for  con- 
centration. On  the  other  hand,  school  work  that  is  rightly  moti- 
vated is  not  necessarily  easy.  It  demands  real  effort  and  this  is  as 
it  should  be.  All  things  worth  having  in  life  are  hedged  round 
with  difficulty,  and  no  victory  is  possible  without  a  struggle. 
Initiative  we  need,  and  originality,  power  of  independent  thought 
and  resourcefulness,  but  these  should  grow  out  of  obedience  and 
docility.  Thoroughness  is  a  prime  requisite;  race  experience 
needs  to  be  mastered,  not  desultorily  consulted.  But  the  while 
w^e  seek  for  thoroughness,  for  the  ability  to  apply  oneself  to  set 
tasks,  we  must  not  forget  that  there  is  a  place  for  interest  and 
motive  and  that  things  are  best  done  and  virtues  best  acquired 
when  they  are  done  and  acquired  rationally. 

We  may  add  that  no  subject  should  be  retained  in  the  elementary 
curriculum  for  purely  disciplinary  reasons.  Although  discipline 
is  possible  and  the  culture  of  the  individual  is  the  first  great  aim 
of  education,  the  period  of  elementary  education  is  so  short  and 
there  are  so  many  specific  ends  to  be  consulted,  that  any  direct 
attempts  at  general  training  are  out  of  place.  Let  it  be  remem- 
bered that  any  subject,  no  matter  how  practical,  may  be  so  taught 
that  it  will  yield  discipline.  Transfer  is  largely  a  matter  of 
method,  and  even  such  cultural  subjects  as  pure  science  or  the 
ancient  languages  will  fail  utterly  of  their  purpose  if  they  are  not 
properly  presented.  Ziller  remarks:  "The  proper  kind  of  practical 
knowledge,  presented  in  the  proper  way,  will  also  yield  the  right 
kind  of  formal  discipline."^^  Other  things  being  equal,  the 
practical  reasons  should  prevail  over  the  cultural  in  the  choice 
of  elementary  subject-matter. 

Finally,  it  is  obvious  that  no  matter  how  well  chosen  and 
organized  a  course  of  study  may  be,  it  can  never  take  the  place  of 
a  good  teacher.  It  is  the  teacher  who  must  interpret  it,  apply  it 
and  make  it  productive  of  results.      Hence  the  universal  cry  for 


I 


*"  Ackermann,  Edward,  Die  Formtde  Bildung,  p.  89. 


82      The  Curriculum  of  the  Catholic  Elementary  School 

good  teachers,  men  and  women  of  real  culture,  who  understand 
the  possibilities  and  limitations  of  subject-matter,  who  know  the 
psychology  of  the  branches  they  teach,  who  can  effect  that  com- 
promise between  the  child  and  the  curriculum  which  will  never 
sacrifice  the  former  in  the  interests  of  the  latter,  but  who  will 
use  the  curriculum  as  it  is  intended  to  be  used,  as  an  epitome  of  the 
Truth  that  shall  make  men  free. 


CHAPTER  V 

THE  CURRICULUM  OF  THE  CATHOLIC  ELEMENTARY  SCHOOL — THE 

SCOPE 

In  the  preceding  chapters  we  have  considered  the  school  as 
society's  means  of  self-preservation.  We  have  shown  how  educa- 
tion in  every  age  should  reflect  the  social  ideals  of  the  time.  The 
chief  characteristics  of  the  modern  age  were  examined  with  a  view 
of  discovering  the  fundamental  facts  which  must  influence  con- 
temporary educational  procedure.  We  have  indicated  the  broad 
lines  which  Catholic  Education  must  follow  if  it  would  keep 
abreast  of  the  times,  and  at  the  same  time  fulfill  its  mission  of 
bringing  the  modern  world  captive  to  Christ.  We  have  criticized 
the  current  interpretation  of  the  principle  that  education  is  adjust- 
ment to  the  environment,  and  postulated  that  adjustment,  to  be 
adequate  and  effective,  must  be  an  active,  not  a  passive  process. 
The  individual  is  not  to  be  fitted  into  society  as  a  cog  into  a 
machine,  but  is  to  be  given  the  power  of  self -adjustment,  the  power 
of  individual  choice  based  on  character,  which  will  enable  him  to 
fulfill  the  requirements  of  society  and  at  the  same  time  cooperate 
in  the  raising  of  society  to  higher  planes  of  truth  and  justice. 
This  power  is  the  cultural  effect  of  education  and  can  only  be 
realized  when  education  is  dominated  by  broad  and  general,  and 
not  merely  narrow,  utilitarian  ideals.  W^e  shall  now  attempt  to 
reduce  all  of  this  to  a  working  basis  by  showing  how  it  is  to  be 
applied  in  the  formulation  of  a  curriculum  for  the  elementary 
school. 

The  first  thing  to  be  determined  is  the  scope  of  elementary 
education  in  the  United  States.  This  nation  has  made  its  act  of 
faith  in  democracy  as  the  best  type  of  social  order  for  the  protec- 
tion of  individual  rights  on  one  hand,  and  the  maintenance  of  a 
duly  constituted  authority  on  the  other.  Now  the  cornerstone  of 
democracy  is  the  notion  of  equality.  The  passion  for  liberty, 
while  logically  a  development  of  the  insistence  upon  the  inherent 
value  of  the  individual,  is  historically  a  negative  development, 
born  of  a  struggle  for  the  equalization  of  fundamental  rights.  The 
principle  that  "all  men  are  created  free  and  equal"  lies  at  the 
foundation  of  our  national  institutions.  Our  Constitution,  which 
is  built  upon  it,  is  our  guarantee  of  individual  liberty.     Of  course 

88 


84      The  Curriculum  of  the  Catholic  Elementary  School 

the  canon  of  equality  does  not  deny  an  aristocracy  of  natural 
talent  due  to  native  individual  differences.  But  it  does  condemn 
any  special  political  or  social  privilege  being  accorded  such  aris- 
tocracy or  to  any  other  aristocracy  based  on  less  worthy  considera- 
tions, such  as  wealth  or  social  caste.  Leadership  there  must  always 
be,  but  such  leadership  should  be  the  reward  of  real  achievement. 
No  artificial  barrier  raised  by  caste,  wealth  or  learning  should 
obstruct  the  masses  in  the  enjoyment  of  those  things  which  are 
fundamental  to  decent  living.  Every  man,  woman  and  child 
must  possess  the  right  to  "  life,  liberty  and  the  pursuit  of  happiness." 

For  elementary  education  this  means  that  every  child  that 
comes  into  the  schools,  no  matter  what  his  antecedents  may  have 
been,  no  matter  likewise  what  his  future  social  and  economic 
destiny  may  be,  must  receive  the  same  general,  fundamental 
education.  There  is  no  room  in  American  life  for  an  educational 
practice  such  as  prevails  in  the  countries  of  Europe,  where  the 
schools  are  orientated  according  to  the  present  and  future  social 
standing  of  the  children  in  such  manner  that  higher  education  is 
the  heritage  of  birth  and  money,  and  the  children  of  the  lower  class 
are  predestined  to  the  same  level  of  life  as  their  fathers.  Such  a 
system  is  well  calculated  to  perpetuate  a  society  that  is  founded  on 
stratification,  but  it  is  utterly  at  variance  with  American  ideals. 
Every  American  child  is  the  potential  heir  to  all  that  is  best  in 
our  national  life.  If  our  fathers  have  labored  and  fought  and  died 
that  liberty  may  thrive  among  us,  that  liberty  shall  be  his  and  he 
shall  be  protected  from  all  that  might  dispossess  him.  No  dis- 
crimination, no  differentiation  may  obtain  in  our  "common 
schools;"  there  must  be  the  same  competence  for  all. 

This  competence  must  include  all  the  fundamental  and  necessary 
elements  of  American  living.  On  the  practical  side,  all  the 
experiences,  forms  of  knowledge,  types  of  behavior,  mental  atti- 
tudes and  dispositions  that  are  basic  to  the  majority  of  the  voca- 
tions upon  which  the  children  will  enter  in  later  life,  must  be 
fostered.  On  the  cultural  side,  there  must  be  provision  for  all  the 
qualities  of  mind  which  are  requisite,  if  the  individual  is  to  lead  a 
rich  and  sanely  balanced  life,  a  life  valuable  to  society  and  at  the 
same  time  in  accord  with  his  own  eternal  destiny. 

This  conclusion  is  further  strengthened  by  the  fact  that  democ- 
racy depends  upon  sanctions  that  are  moral  and  social,  rather  than 
political.     Autocratic  governments  use  force  to  maintain  order 


Discussion  of  Psychological  and  Social  Foundations    85 

and  keep  refractory  elements  in  line  by  means  of  physical  threat. 
Democracy  makes  its  appeal  to  common-sense.  The  citizen  is  to 
be  guided  by  his  own  sense  of  fairness  and  justice  to  the  realization 
of  the  necessity  of  subordinating  selfish  interest  to  the  common 
good.  Only  when  individuals  show  themselves  unwilling  to  co- 
operate, to  respect  the  rights  of  the  group,  or  perhaps  pathologic- 
ally unable  to  do  so,  is  appeal  made  to  force. 

But  moral  sanction  presupposes  moral  character,  and  if  this  is 
not  developed  in  the  group,  anti-social  elements  are  bound  to 
prevail.  Russia  today  is  an  example  of  what  happens  when  there 
is  not  sufficient  moral  character  in  a  people  to  sustain  liberty. 
Democracy  is  a  perilous  venture  when  there  is  lacking  a  citizen- 
ship incapable  of  living  up  to  its  ideals. 

Opinion  in  a  democracy  is  not  a  drawing-room  affair;  it  must  be 
the  atmosphere  of  the  market-place.  It  is  the  function  of  the 
plain  man  as  well  as  the  scholar.  Ability  to  think  is  a  universal 
requisite.  The  demagogue  is  always  at  hand  and  he  is  successful 
only  because  his  appeal  is  made  to  ignorance,  which,  not  having  the 
knowledge  or  the  grasp  of  ideals  necessary  to  form  a  critical 
judgment  of  his  doctrine,  follows  him  blindly.  Likewise  abuses 
creep  in  and  sap  the  vitality  of  public  life,  because  the  people 
have  not  been  made  sensitive  to  their  existence. 

The  moral  sanctions  of  democracy  are  dependent  upon  two 
elements,  intelligent  leadership  and  intelligent  following.  There 
are  born  leaders,  men  of  great  mentality  and  tremendous  energy, 
who  direct  the  course  of  events  and  make  the  history  of  a  whole 
generation.  Yet  within  certain  bounds  and  in  a  certain  way, 
every  man  is  at  some  time  or  other  a  leader.  It  may  be  only  his 
own  family  that  he  dominates,  or  his  social  group,  but  he  is  none 
the  less  a  leader  and  others  look  to  him  for  guidance.  Here  again 
judgment,  ideals,  character  come  into  play.  The  leader  must 
know  whither  he  is  bound;  others  must  know  whether  or  not  to 
follow  him  and  how  far.  The  two  functions  are  mutually  protec- 
tive. The  follower  must  be  unto  the  leader  a  directive  force,  not 
hampering  him  or  neutralizing  his  ability,  but  preserving  him  from 
the  perils  of  leadership,  from  pride,  self-interest  and  irresponsi- 
bility. For  human  genius  like  a  torrent  needs  to  be  guided  con- 
stantly, lest  it  destroy  where  it  was  destined  to  create.  The  leader 
must  be  unto  his  followers  a  cloud  by  day  and  a  pillar  of  fire  by 
night  to  lead  them  safely  on  and  help  them  to  avoid  the  perils  and 


86      The  Curriculum  of  the  Catholic  Elementary  School 

quagmires  that  beset  their  path.  In  a  democracy,  the  people  as 
well  as  their  leaders  should  be  masters  of  the  fundamental  ideas  that 
rule  their  common  social  and  political  destiny.^^^ 

It  is  these  facts  and  considerations  that  inspire  the  current 
philosophy  of  elementary  education.  The  function  of  elementary 
education  in  America  is  to  prepare  children  for  life  in  a  democratic 
society,  to  make  them  conscious  of  their  mutual  interests,  for 
such  consciousness  is  the  basis  of  social  control.  In  the  second 
place,  this  sense  of  solidarity  must  express  itself  in  cooperation  for 
the  common  good.  In  order  to  achieve  these  ends  the  school  must 
represent,  in  epitomized  form,  the  environment  in  which  the  child 
is  to  live.  It  should  not  be  content  with  constituting  a  mere 
segment  of  life  where  certain  mechanical  formulae  are  mastered, 
but  it  should  reflect  the  whole  of  life.  In  it  the  child  prepares  for 
life  by  active  participation  in  the  process  of  living. 

But  the  school,  in  developing  its  curriculum  according  to  the 
above  principle,  must  not  forget  the  child's  point  of  view.  The 
curriculum  must  respect  the  mind  of  the  child.  The  world  of  the 
child  is  narrow  and  its  contacts  personal.  "Things  hardly  come 
within  his  experience  unless  they  touch  intimately  and  obviously 
his  own  well-being  or  that  of  his  family  and  friends.  His  world  is 
a  world  of  persons  with  their  personal  interests,  rather  than  a 
realm  of  facts  and  laws."^^^  The  course  of  study  is  intended  to 
enlarge  this  world,  to  push  its  frontiers  further  and  further  back, 
to  break  down  the  barriers  of  time  and  space  and  introduce  the 
child  step  by  step  into  the  fulness  of  human  experience.  Again 
the  child's  life  is  characterized  by  its  unity.  All  things  are  viewed 
in  relation  to  his  present  personal  interests.  He  does  not  analyze 
and  classify  and  divide  life  up  into  categories.  "Whatever  is 
uppermost  in  his  mind  constitutes  to  him,  for  the  time  being,  his 
whole  universe."  In  the  school,  on  the  other  hand,  experience  is 
analyzed  and  classified.  It  is  reduced  to  logical  form  for  the  sake 
of  economy  and  because  experience  can  never  rightly  function 
unless  it  is  organized. 

Now  there  is  danger  that  the  adult  point  of  view  dominate  the 
curriculum,  with  the  result  that  the  nature  and  needs  of  the  child 
mind  will  be  lost  sight  of.     The  adult  possesses  powers  of  abstrac- 


^53  Aronovici,   Carol,   "  Organized  Leisure  as  a   Factor  in   Conservation. 
American  Journal  of  Sociology,  Vol.  XXIV,  No.  4,  p.  382. 

1"  Dewey,  John,  The  Child  and  the  Curriculum,     Chicago,  1902,  p.  8. 


Discussion  of  Psychological  and  Social  Foundations    87 

tion  that  are  outside  the  range  of  the  child  mind.  He  deHghts  in 
scientific  classification  that  is  the  fruit  of  knowledge  already  mas- 
tered. He  has  reduced  life  to  a  series  of  formulae.  Now  the  at- 
tempt to  transmit  knowledge  to  children  in  this  final  form  is  futile. 
Because  it  does  not  appeal  to  present  needs  it  fails  to  awaken  in- 
terest; there  is  no  motivation  save  outside  pressure  and  no  stimula- 
tion to  spontaneous  activity.  The  result  is  waste  of  time  and  un- 
economical learning.  Thought  is  not  stimulated,  because  not 
problems  but  adult  solutions  of  problems  are  presented.  Prodig- 
ious demands  are  made  on  the  memory,  and  mere  symbols,  whose 
meaning  is  not  understood,  are  carried  along  in  an  unassimilated 
state.  Time  and  effort  are  wasted  drilling  on  matter  that  should  be 
developed,  and,  as  a  consequence,  thorough  drill  on  form  subjects 
is  neglected.  It  is  a  mistake  to  try  to  impose  ready-made 
knowledge  upon  children.  Organization  is  necessary,  but  it 
should  be  functional.  That  is  to  say,  it  should  come  at  the  end  of 
the  process  as  a  kind  of  summing  up,  and  not  be  imposed  before- 
hand. In  a  word  this  means  that  the  curriculum  must  respect  the 
laws  of  child  psychology  and  adapt  its  material  to  the  mind  of  the 
child.  The  truths  of  life  should  be  presented  in  germinal  form, 
to  develop  as  time  goes  on,  gathering  more  and  more  detail  and 
taking  on  exact  formulation.  In  this  manner  they  will  become 
functional,  creating  permanent  interests  that  will  perdure  even 
when  school  days  are  over.^^^ 

Whatever  administration  may  finally  decree  as  to  the  length  of 
the  period  of  elementary  education,  whether  it  shall  be  six  or  eight 
years,  it  is  emphatically  not  the  time  for  specialization.  Early  spe- 
cialization turns  the  mind  aside  in  the  direction  of  one  particular  set 
of  interests  and  blinds  it  as  a  consequence  to  other  interests.  It  de- 
stroys mental  perspective.  It  is  the  basis  of  class  distinction  and 
brings  about  the  condition  fostered  by  the  German  Volkschule.  It 
predestines  certain  individuals  to  a  definite  vocation,  long  before 
they  are  so  far  developed  as  to  be  able  to  make  their  own  intelligent 
choice.  It  makes  the  child  a  victim  of  circumstance,  for  i*",  in  the 
course  of  time,  the  occupation  for  which  he  has  been  trained  ceases  to 
exist,  he  has  not  whereunto  to  turn  his  hand.  The  time  for  special- 
ization is  the  advent  of  adolescence,  when  the  things  of  childhood 
are  being  put  away,  when  interest  begins  to  shift  from  phenomena  to 
general  truths  and  relations  seem  more  important  than  facts.     It  is 

^^  Shields,  Thomas  E.,  Teachers*  Manual  of  Primary  Methods,  Washington, 
1912.  p.  87. 


88      The  Curriculum  of  the  Catholic  Elementary  School 

then  that  individual  differences,  perhaps  more  or  less  clearly  fore- 
shadowed in  the  past,  become  pronounced.  But  before  this  time, 
the  objective  should  be  general  growth  and  development  and  the 
imparting  of  that  fundamental  information  concerning  God  and 
man  and  the  world  which  will  later  form  the  basis  of  mature  judg- 
ment and  reasoning,  and  which  must  be  the  heritage  of  every  citizen 
of  the  United  States,  whether  he  be  laborer  or  statesman,  merchant 
or  savant,  soldier  or  man  of  peace. ^^® 

The  above-outlined  theory  of  elementary  education  meets  with 
the  condemnation  of  a  surprisingly  large  number  of  thinking 
men.  They  maintain  that  the  function  of  the  elementary  school 
is  to  train  children  in  the  use  of  the  tools  of  education.  The 
mind  of  the  child  is  incapable  of  the  thought  required  in  the 
modern  scheme,  though  it  is  particularly  well  fitted,  because  of 
its  plasticity,  for  the  habit  formation  required  by  training  in  the 
three  R's.  If  the  school  renders  them  skilful  in  the  manipula- 
tion of  these,  it  has  done  its  utmost.  The  following  opinion  sums 
up  this  point  of  view.  "I  would  say  to  elementary  teachers: 
Give  me  a  boy  at  the  age  of  eleven  or  twelve  who  writes  a 
good  legible  hand,  who  spells  correctly,  reads  with  expression, 
has  an  accurate  knowledge  of  the  Baltimore  Catechism  and  of 
Bible  History,  who  can  do  rapid  and  accurate  work  in  the  funda- 
mental operations  of  arithmetic,  who  knows  fractions  and  per- 
centage, who  can  write  a  short  letter  in  simple  and  plain  English, 
whose  habits  of  speech  are  correct  and  not  slangy,  whose  manners, 
if  not  gentle,  show  at  least  some  thought  of  others  beside  himself, 
and  whose  life  is  virtuous,  and  I  will  say  that  this  boy  has  received 
a  good  elementary  education.  With  these  results  we  need  not 
care  how  much  or  how  little  information  he  has  acquired,  nor  need 
we  inquire  about  methods,  nor  ask  how  much  the  teacher  knows 
about  psychology.  "^^^ 

But  schooling  of  this  sort  does  not  constitute  preparation  for 
life,  unless  we  are  willing  to  admit  that  a  child  is  adequately 
prepared  for  life,  once  he  has  mastered  the  school  elements.  Nor 
can  it  be  argued  that,  given  skill  in  the  use  of  the  tools  of  education, 
the  rest,  the  development  and  further  knowledge,  can  be  acquired 
in  the  high  school.  We  need  only  refer  to  the  studies  in  school 
elimination  made  by  Thorndyke,  Ayres  and  Strayer,  the  findings 

^**  National  Educational  Association,  Report  of  Committee  of  Fifteen,  p.  73. 

^^' Howard,  Francis  W.,  "The  Problem  of  the  Curriculum."  Catholic 
Educational  Association,  Report  of  the  Proceedings  and  Addresses  of  the  Tenth 
Annual  Meeting,  1913,  p.  144. 


Discussion  of  Psychological  and  Social  Foundations    89 

of  which  are  commonplaces  in  educational  circles  today,  and  which 
bear  out  a  condition  that  had  been  universally  noted  long  before. 

Professor  Thorndyke,  of  Columbia  University,  was  the  first  to 
make  a  study  of  this  question  according  to  modern  statistical 
methods. ^^®  This  was  in  1907.  The  discussion  evoked  by  this 
study  resulted  in  a  number  of  other  contributions,  the  most 
important  of  which  is  that  published  in  1909  by  Dr.  Leonard  P. 
Ayres,^^^  and  that  published  in  1911  by  Professor  Strayer  of 
Columbia  University.  ^^'^  These  investigations,  though  they  differed 
in  method  of  computation,  reached  approximately  the  same  con- 
clusion. Of  100  children  who  enter  the  first  grade  of  the  public 
schools,  practically  all  reach  the  end  of  the  fifth  grade.  But 
from  the  end  of  the  fifth  grade  to  the  beginning  of  the  first  year  of 
high  school,  from  60  to  67  per  cent  drop  by  the  wayside,  and  only 
from  17  to  :25  per  cent  of  the  original  100  reach  the  second  year 
of  the  high  school.  Even  if  we  allow  for  all  possible  inaccuracies 
in  the  computation,  we  are  forced  to  admit  that  the  percentage  of 
mortality  is  appalling.  No  study  of  this  condition  has  been  made 
in  the  Catholic  system,  but  if  it  were,  we  w^ould  expect  the  average 
to  be  even  higher,  for  the  reason  that  our  Catholic  pupils  are 
largely  drawn  from  the  poorer  classes  and  their  parents  are  not 
always  as  appreciative  of  the  needs  of  higher  education  as  we  would 
care  to  have  them.  Moreover,  we  have  yet  to  develop  a  complete 
and  universal  high  school  system  and,  pending  its  advent,  we  have 
only  our  private  academies,  which  are  generally  conducted  on  a 
tuition  basis,  and  the  public  high  schools,  attendance  at  which 
we  do  not  always  encourage.  Consequently,  all  of  the  education 
that  the  great  majority  of  our  Catholic  children  receive  is  received 
in  the  elementary  school. ^*^^ 

It  may  be  argued  that  for  those  children  who  leave  school 
early,  life  is  the  great  university  wherein,  with  the  aid  of  the  tools 
they  have  acquired,   they  may  complete  their  own  education. 

»"  Thorndyke,  Edward  L.,  "The  Elimination  of  Pupils  from  SchGoL** 
United  States  Bureau  of  Education  Publication,  1907,  No.  4. 

*''  Ayres,  Leonard  P..  Laggards  in  our  Schools.     New  York,  1909. 

2°"  Strayer,  George  Drayton,  "Age  and  Grade  Census  of  Schools  and 
Colleges."     United  States  Bureau  of  Education  Publication,  1911,  No.  5. 

^"^  McCormick,  Patrick  J.,  "Retardation  and  Elimination  of  Pupils  in  our 
Schools."  Catholic  Educational  .Association,  Report  of  the  Proceedings  and 
Addresses  of  the  Eighth  Annual  Meeting,  1911,  Vol.  V'lII,  No.  1,  p.  326.  Dr. 
McCormick  shows  how  in  one  diocesan  system  where  the  total  enrollment  is 
62,000,  there  are  92  per  cent  more  children  in  the  first  than  in  the  eighth  grade. 
In  another  system,  the  number  of  children  in  the  eighth  grade  is  8  per  cent  of 
the  number  in  the  first  grade. 


90      The  Curriculum  of  the  Catholic  Elementary  School 

There  is  the  daily  contact  with  life,  to  be  supplemented  by  books 
and  newspapers.  Great  public  libraries  in  every  city  are  open  to 
all;  lectures  are  given  everywhere  and  the  pulpit  is  always  a  force 
in  Catholic  life. 

Yet  as  a  matter  of  fact  do  these  agencies  benefit  the  masses  of 
of  the  people?  Interest,  if  it  is  to  thrive,  must  first  be  created. 
The  avidity  with  which  the  vulgar  and  salacious  in  literature  is 
siezed  upon,  the  wide  vogue  of  the  yellow  press,  the  empty  seats  at 
lectures  that  are  worth  while,  give  us  a  clue  to  the  interests  of  the 
people.  Vulgarity  is  close  to  the  physical  inheritance  of  man;  it 
appeals  to  instinctive  interests,  and  will  operate  infallibly  unless 
the  lower  man  has  been  transformed  by  the  educative  process  and 
higher  interests  have  been  built  up.  Moreover,  suggestion  plays 
a  strong  roll  in  the  lives  of  those  who  lack  the  necessary  knowledge 
and  habits  to  withstand  it.  We  see  this  in  the  political  world 
where  people  accept  unquestioningly  the  word  of  the  politician  or 
the  demagogue  and  become  now  dumb,  driven  cattle,  now  the 
angry  mob.  Our  Catholic  people  are  not  going  to  be  made  strong 
against  all  the  evil  influences  that  are  rampant  today  merely  by 
being  taught  how  to  read  and  write  and  become  expert  in  the 
manipulation  of  fractions. 

We  subjoin  the  opinion  of  three  prominent  and  authoritative 
educators  on  this  question.  Paul  H.  Hanus,  of  Harvard  University, 
says:  "Eight  or  nine  years  spent  on  the  school  arts,  together  with 
book  geography  and  a  little  United  States  history,  have  left  the 
pupil  at  fourteen  years  of  age  without  permanent  interest  in  nature 
or  human  institutions  and  human  achievements,  whether  in  the 
field  of  literature,  science  and  art,  or  in  the  industrial,  political  and 
commercial  life  of  his  time,  and,  what  is  worse,  without  much 
inclination  to  acquire  such  interest  by  further  study.  "202 

John  Dewey,  of  Columbia  University,  says:  "The  notion  that 
the  *  essentials'  of  elementary  education  are  the  three  R's,  me- 
chanically treated,  is  based  upon  ignorance  of  the  essentials  needed 
for  realization  of  democratic  ideals.  Unconsciously  it  assumes 
that  these  ideals  are  unrealizable;  it  assumes  that  in  the  future  as 
in  the  past,  getting  a  livelihood,  *  making  a  living,'  must  signify 
for  most  men  and  women  doing  things  which  are  not  significant, 
freely  chosen,  and  ennobling  to  those  who  do  them;  doing  things 
which  serve  ends  unrecognized  by  those  engaged  in  them,  carried 
on  under  the  direction  of  others  for  the  sake  of  pecuniary  reward. 

202  Hanus,  Paul  H.,  The  Modern  School,  p.  6. 


Discussion  of  Psychological  and  Social  Foundations    91 

For  preparation  of  large  numbers  for  a  life  of  this  sort,  and  only 
for  this  purpose,  are  mechanical  efficiency  in  reading,  writing, 
spelling  and  figuring,  together  with  the  attainm^ent  of  a  certain 
amount  of  muscular  dexterity,  *  essentials.'  Such  conditions 
also  infect  the  education  called  liberal  with  illiberality.  They 
imply  a  somewhat  parasitic  cultivation  bought  at  the  expense 
of  not  having  the  enlightenment  and  discipline  which  come  from 
concern  with  the  deepest  problems  of  common  humanity.  A 
curriculum  which  acknowledges  the  social  responsibilities  of  educa- 
tion must  present  situations  where  problems  are  relevant  to  the 
problems  of  living  together,  and  where  observation  and  informa- 
tion are  calculated  to  develop  social  insight  and  interest. "2<^'' 

In  his  recent  work,  "Catholic  Education,"  Rev.  Dr.  J.  A. 
Burns,  C.S.C,  has  the  following  to  say  on  the  question:  "Many 
Catholics  believe  that  if  more  time  were  devoted  in  school  to  the 
old  formal  studies,  our  youth  would  have  a  better  chance  of  secur- 
ing good  positions  in  the  business  world  after  they  leave  school. 
Such  arguments  are  plausible.  They  appeal  to  the  practical 
instinct.  Nevertheless,  adjustment  to  one's  environment  in  this 
narrow  utilitarian  sense  can  never  wisely  be  made  the  dominating 
principle  in  any  general  scheme  of  education.  The  reason  is 
simple.  Education  must  aim  to  develop  and  train  the  whole 
child — all  his  faculties  or  powers,  all  his  emotions,  senses,  capacities. 
If  we  accept  this  view  of  the  function  of  education,  it  would  seem 
that  the  new  or  *  real  studies '  are  essentially  required  in  the  cur- 
riculum, inasmuch  as  they  are  calculated  to  develop  powers  that 
are  practically  left  untouched  by  the  older  studies.  In  elementary 
education  especially,  the  principle  of  direct  utility  must  be  applied 
with  caution.  Superficial  results  naturally  show  themselves 
quickly.  A  boy  who  can  figure,  write  and  spell  better  than  another 
may  not  be  nearly  so  well  educated  as  the  latter,  and  in  the  long 
run  may  fall  far  behind  him  in  the  race  of  life.  The  product  of 
the  modern  educational  process  may  be,  as  it  is  claimed,  lacking 
in  accuracy,  definiteness  and  precision;  but  this,  if  it  be  true,  must 
result  rather  from  the  method  than  from  the  subject-matter  made 
use  of.  Surely,  the  study  of  the  sciences  and  drawing  must  tend 
to  beget  habits  of  accuracy,  definiteness  and  precision  not  less  than 
does  the  study  of  reading,  writing,  spelling  and  arithmetic.  "2<*^ 

203  Dewey,  John,  Democracy  and  Education,  p.  236. 

'0*  Burns,  J.  A.,  Catholic  Education,  A   Study    of   Conditions,    New    York, 
1917.  p.  77. 


CHAPTER  VI 

THE  CURRICULUM  OF  THE  CATHOLiC  ELEMENTARY  SCHOOL SUBJECT- 
MATTER 

The  aim  of  Catholic  education  has  been  clearly  and  comprehen- 
sively stated  by  Dr.  Shields  in  the  following  diefinition.  **The 
unchanging  aim  of  Christian  education  is,  and  always  has  been,  to 
put  the  pupil  in  possession  of  a  body  of  truth  derived  from  nature 
and  from  divine  revelation,  from  the  concrete  work  of  man's  hand, 
and  from  the  content  of  human  speech,  in  order  to  bring  his  conduct 
into  conformity  with  Christian  ideals  and  the  standards  of  the 
civilization  of  his  day."^^^  This  definition  sums  up  all  that  we  have 
been  discussing  in  the  foregoing  pages.  It  implies  an  education 
that  will  answer  all  the  needs  of  the  child,  physical,  intellectual, 
social,  moral  and  religious.  It  heeds  the  right  claims  of  society 
on  one  hand,  and  the  claims  of  the  individual  on  the  other.  It 
indicates  the  proper  balance  between  the  utilitarian  and  the  cul- 
tural. Moreover,  it  gives  a  clue  to  the  sources  and  proper  division 
of  the  subject-matter  that  is  necessary  for  the  accomplishing  of  the 
end.  First  of  all  there  must  be  knowledge  of  the  truth;  secondly 
there  must  be  conduct  in  conformity  with  truth.  Sound  pedagogy 
requires  that  impression  be  completed  by  expression,  that  the  mind 
react  to  the  stimulus  of  information.  The  stimulus  is  such  know- 
ledge as  is  essential  to  the  right  understanding  of  life  and  all  its 
fundamental  relations;  the  response  is  the  activity  that  is  necessary 
if  the  truth  is  to  be  assimilated,  if  it  is  to  become  part  and  parcel  of 
the  pupil's  being  and  express  itself  in  his  daily  life. 

First  of  all  as  to  the  truth  which  is  to  be  acquired.  We  are  to 
bear  in  mind  that  the  child  has  been  placed  in  this  world  that  he 
may  journey  back  to  God.  Therefore  before  and  above  all  things 
else,  he  must  learn  to  know  God.  Now  the  chief  source  of  such 
knowledge  is  God's  Revealed  Word.  In  His  loving  Providence, 
God  has  come  to  the  assistance  of  man's  weakness  and  has  enlight- 
ened his  darkness  by  showing  him  the  secret  hidden  from  the  ages. 
Human  reason  unaided  may  come  to  some  shadowy  and  imperfect 
idea  of  God.  But  the  instability  and  shadowy  character  of  this 
idea  is  a  commonplace  of  human  experience.  It  proves  the  thesis  of 
Catholic  Theology  on  the  necessity  of  Divine  Revelation. 

^^^  Shields,  Thomas  E.,  Philosophy  of  Education,  p.  171. 
92 


Discussion  of  Psychological  and  Social  Foundations    93 

Moreover,  without  an  adequate  knowledge  of  God  man  can  at 
best  have  a  faulty  and  incomplete  knowledge  of  all  things  besides. 
Revealed  Truth  serves  to  illuminate  acquired  truth,  shows  all 
things  in  their  right  perspective,  solves  problems  that  thwart 
the  powers  of  reason,  in  a  word,  makes  clear  the  whole  meaning 
and  aim  of  human  life. 

Consequently  any  educational  system  that  leaves  out  Revealed 
Religion  defeats  its  own  purposes.  Christ  is  the  Light  of  the  world 
and  it  is  only  in  His  Light  that  we  can  see  the  Light.  He  is  the 
manifestation  of  Eternal  Wisdom.  He  comes  from  the  Father  to 
show  men  how  to  live;  He  reveals  the  only  workable  philosophy  of 
life.  The  first  duty  of  the  school  is  to  teach  the  child  to  know 
Jesus  Christ  and  His  Mission  here  upon  earth.  Says  Cardinal 
Newman:  '* Religious  Truth  is  not  only  a  portion  but  a  condition 
of  general  knowledge.  To  blot  it  out  is — according  to  the 
Greek  proverb — to  take  the  Spring  from  out  of  the  year;  it  is  to 
imitate  the  preposterous  proceeding  of  those  tragedians  who  repre- 
sented a  drama  with  the  omission  of  its  principal  part."^^® 

But  Divine  Revelation,  while  the  principal,  is  not  the  sole 
source  of  the  knowledge  of  God.  It  does  not  destroy  reason  nor 
render  its  functions  superfluous.  The  supernatural  does  not 
dispense  with  the  natural.  Grace  and  nature  go  hand  in  hand, 
the  former  sanctifying  the  latter,  raising  it  to  higher  levels,  sup- 
plying it  with  nobler  and  more  effective  motives.  The  sanctifying 
grace  which  comes  to  us  at  baptism  must  function  through  our 
natural  powers  if  it  is  to  function  at  all,  and  it  demands  their 
development.  Human  intelligence  must  grasp  the  doctrines  of 
faith,  human  emotions  must  express  their  lessons  of  love,  the 
human  will  must  accept  their  law.  The  knowledge  that  is  gleaned 
from  natural  sources  is  always  necessary,  would  we  reduce  the 
Doctrine  of  Jesus  Christ  to  practice. 

The  first  source  of  created  knowledge  is  human  nature  itself. 
We  remember  the  phrase  of  St.  Augustine,  ''Noverim  me,  noverim 
ley  By  searching  the  heart  of  man  and  pondering  his  deeds,  we 
discover  his  dependence  upon  God  and  his  relations  with  God  in 
his  daily  life.  The  knowledge  of  man  is  derived  from  two  great 
sources,  one  external,  comprising  the  story  of  man's  activities,  the 
other  internal,  revealing  the  secrets  of  his  heart.  The  external 
knowledge  of  man  is  sometimes  called  his  Institutional  inheri- 

*"•  Newman,  John  Henry,  The  Idea  of  a  University,  p.  70. 


94      The  Curriculum  of  the  Catholic  Elementary  School 

tance.^"^  It  includes  all  that  man  has  discovered  concerning  life 
and  the  various  ways  in  which  he  has  utilized  his  discoveries. 
Under  this  head  is  included  history.  According  to  the  principles 
of  the  genetic  method  which  is  used  in  the  study  of  science,  the 
best  way  to  come  to  an  understanding  of  any  complex  product  is 
to  study  that  product  in  the  making.  This  principle  is  very  much 
apropos  when  the  complex  product  we  are  studying  is  man.  The 
present  is  only  rightly  understood  in  the  light  of  the  past;  to  see  only 
what  is  before  one's  eyes  is  to  be  purblind  indeed.  Contemporary 
civilization  is  not  something  casual,  a  kind  of  Mendelian  ** sport"; 
it  is  the  logical  effect  of  past  causes.  We  owe  the  institutions,  the 
laws,  the  ideals  that  characterize  our  life  in  the  present,  to  what 
men  have  thought  and  desired  and  achieved  in  the  past. 

Now  the  value  of  history  is  that  it  gives  a  real  knowledge  of 
mankind.  It  reveals  the  solidarity  of  the  human  race  and  the 
permanence  of  certain  deep  and  fundamental  traits.  Moreover,  it 
inspires  and  consoles  by  relating  the  triumphs  of  true  greatness. 
It  has  a  religious  value  in  that  it  shows  how  the  Providence  of 
God  presides  over  human  destiny  and  directs  all  things  mightily 
but  sweetly.  Its  practical  value  comes  from  the  light  it  throws 
on  things  civic  and  political.  It  reveals  the  evolution  of  forms  of 
government  that  are  better  and  better  adapted  to  safeguard 
liberty  and  the  welfare  of  the  governed. ^^^  It  demonstrates  the 
peril  that  lurks  in  certain  types  of  human  perfidy  or  certain  forms 
of  human  association.  It  teaches  valuable  lessons  for  industrial 
life  by  telling  the  story  of  man's  struggles  to  make  a  living  in  the 
past.  It  fosters  hope  and  vision  for  the  future,  because  if  it  is 
valid  history,  it  reveals  the  true  secret  of  human  progress.  It 
has  a  direct  bearing  on  morals,  provided  of  course  that  its  ethical 
implications  are  developed.  In  a  word,  it  introduces  man  to  an 
environment  that  transcends  time  and  space  and  makes  him  heir 
to  the  experience  of  the  race.^^^ 

Of  course,  history  to  accomplish  all  of  this  must  include  more 
than  the  story  of  the  rise  and  fall  of  nations  and  the  wars  that  they 
have  waged.  Political  history  has  its  place,  but  it  must  be  supple- 
mented by  social  and  industrial  history.  Bible  history  and  the  his- 
tory of  the  Church  must  likewise  be  included,  for  without  them  all 


20^  Butler,  Nicholas  Murray,  The  Meaning  of  Education,  p.  25. 

208  National  Educational  Association,  Report  of  Committee  of  Fifteen,  p.  65. 

209  Willmann,  Otto,  Didalctik  Band  ii  p.  156. 


Discussion  of  Psychological  and  Social  Foundations    95 

other  history  is  meaningless,  for  these  furnish  the  norm  of  inter- 
pretation. 

The  knowledge  of  the  past  must  be  borne  out  by  the  knowledge 
of  the  present.  The  institutions  that  safeguard  human  society 
today,  should  be  studied  by  all,  the  Church,  the  Home,  the  Com- 
munity, the  State,  the  n'ature  of  industrial  organization,  the 
methods  of  modern  industry  and  business.  This  should  be  supple- 
mented by  a  study  of  the  social  ideals  that  should  dominate  the 
life  of  a  Catholic  in  the  modern  world  that  there  may  be  some  train- 
ing in  the  great  task  of  applying  Christian  principles  to  the  needs 
of  daily  life. 

The  internal  source  of  the  knowledge  of  man  is  the  record  of 
the  human  heart.  Man  is  a  creature  of  emotions  as  well  as  of 
intellect  and  will,  and  the  emotions  play  an  eminent  role  in  human 
life.  History  records  the  deeds  of  man,  literature  reveals  his  feel- 
ings. It  discloses  the  inmost  sanctum  of  his  heart  whither  he  has 
ever  turned  to  escape  the  cruelty  of  the  real  and  find  the  solace  of 
the  ideal.  A  knowledge  of  literature  is  of  paramount  importance. 
Without  it  there  is  no  real  understanding  of  either  the  past  or  the 
present,  no  matter  how  detailed  one's  information  may  be  in  other 
respects.  Great  deeds  have  been  accomplished  because  great 
emotions  have  been  the  driving  force.  Literature  gives  us  a  vision 
of  these  emotions;  it  adds  a  personal  touch  to  the  scenes  of  history. 
Literature  is  essentially  a  matter  of  ideals.  It  gathers  together 
the  true,  the  beautiful  and  the  good  elements  in  human  life  and 
presents  them  in  concentrated  form  to  inspire  and  strengthen  us 
when  the  press  of  hard  reality  bids  fair  to  dishearten  and  defeat. 
It  makes  us  heir  to  the  best  that  is  in  human  nature,  affords  us 
opportunity  for  vicarious  experience  and  awakens  that  imaginative 
sympathy  which  is  at  the  basis  of  genuine  love. 

The  fine  arts  likewise  serve  to  reveal  the  heart  of  man.  There 
is  a  thirst  for  beauty  in  every  human  soul,  and  the  expression  of 
beauty  in  human  handiwork  is  always  of  deep  and  permanent 
interest.  Music,  painting  and  the  plastic  arts  all  have  their  place 
ii  a  true  plan  of  education.  Their  value  is  unsurpassed  for 
purifying  the  heart  from  all  the  dross  of  workaday  life  and  making 
it  hungry  for  the  things  that  are  above.  Closely  allied  are  the 
practical  arts.  Historically  speaking,  the  fine  arts  developed  out 
of  the  practical,  and  though  the  end  of  the  latter  is  utility  and  of  the 
former  beauty,  both  have  this  in  common  that  they  are  tools  of 


96      The  Curriculum  of  the  Catholic  Elementary  School 

expression  and  call  for  the  coordination  of  thought  and  muscular 
skill.  One  is  man's  reaction  to  the  physical  needs  of  life;  the 
other  is  the  out-pouring  of  his  soul  in  answer  to  the  needs  of  the 
spirit.210 

The  second  source  of  created  knowledge  is  physical  nature.  The 
world  in  which  we  live  must  always  challenge  the  powers  of  the 
human  mind  and  be  a  source  of  permanent  interest.  First  of  all 
it  is  a  mirror  of  divine  perfection  and  serves  by  its  grandeur,  its 
beauty  and  design  to  give  us  a  fuller  knowledge  of  Him  Who  created 
it.  But  it  is  likewise  the  physical  condition  of  our  daily  living.  It 
is  the  basis  of  most  of  our  institutions  and  the  source  of  most  of 
our  temporal  problems.  The  knowledge  of  nature  possessed  by 
the  ancients  was  meagre  and  enveloped  in  superstition.  But  in 
these  latter  days  science  has  risen  like  a  mighty  sun  to  dispel  this 
darkness.  The  knowledge  of  nature  and  the  operation  of  her 
laws  that  mankind  possesses  today  is  of  prodigious  importance. 
By  means  of  it  the  physical  world  has  been  explored  and  subdued  to 
the  call  of  human  needs.  To  fail  to  give  at  least  the  beginnings  of 
this  knowledge  to  the  growing  child  would  be  to  deprive  him  of 
an  essential  portion  of  his  inheritance.  He  should  be  made 
acquainted  with  the  earth  as  the  scene  of  his  pilgrimage,  the  con- 
dition and  source  of  the  supplying  of  his  physical  needs.  He 
should  possess  that  more  intimate  knowledge  of  nature  which  is 
sometimes  called  elementary  science,  but  which  should  be  in  reality 
an  observation  and  study  of  certain  fundamental  things  in  nature 
that  affect  every  human  being,  and  not  a  verbal  knowledge  of 
fragments  of  nature  lore  that  by  process  of  abstraction  and  classifi- 
cation have  been  divorced  from  reality  and  are  meaningless  to  the 
average  child.^^^ 

But  over  and  above  a  knowledge  of  nature,  science  should  give 
the  child  some  notion  of  scientific  method  and  procedure.  Science 
is  knowledge  that  has  been  acquired  by  dint  of  certain  methods  of 
observation,  reflection  and  verification.  The  child  should  know 
something  of  these  methods  and  their  function.  The  result  will 
be  a  scientific  attitude  which,  rather  than  logical  classification  of 
facts,  is  the  starting-point  of  scientific  knowledge.  It  will  con- 
tribute largely  toward  that  critical  habit  of  mind  which  avoids 
hasty  conclusions  and  withholds  final  judgment  until  all  the 
evidence  is  at  hand. 

210  Dewey,  John,  Democracy  and  Education,  p.  235. 
2"  Ibid  p.  248. 


Discussion  of  Psychological  and  Social  Foundations    97 

But  in  order  to  acquire  an  adequate  knowledge  of  God,  of  man, 
and  of  nature,  the  child  must  be  equipped  with  the  so-called  tools 
of  learning.  Knowledge  comes  to  us  in  some  part  by  word  of 
mouth,  as  in  the  primitive  days;  but  the  chief  mode  of  transmission 
is  the  written  record.  Ever  since  the  day  that  man  discovered  the 
process  of  making  permanent  records,  the  necessity  of  learning  to 
read  and  write  has  been  the  condition  of  learning.  In  the  same 
manner,  man's  conquest  of  the  physical  universe  has  given  rise  to 
the  science  of  number.  Without  skill  in  the  three  R's,  knowledge 
is  a  sealed  book.  Now  this  skill  is  sometimes  considered  the 
principal  objective  of  elementary  education.  We  have  already 
criticized  this  theory  and  it  will  not  be  necessary  to  repeat  the  argu- 
ments here.  Suffice  it  to  say  that  mere  formal  education  of  this 
type  is  barren  and  fails  to  fulfil  the  real  mission  of  the  school.  But 
on  the  other  hand  sufficient  training  in  the  elements  is  absolutely 
indispensable.  The  question  is  how  shall  the  school  solve  the 
problem  of  giving  the  required  content  and  at  the  same  time  de- 
veloping skill  in  the  formal  subjects? 

The  answer  is  that  form  can  be  best  given  in  conjunction  with 
content. 2^2  The  modern  context  method  of  teaching  reading 
demonstrates  this,  for  it  overcomes  the  old  fault  of  word  reading 
and  failure  to  glean  thought  from  the  printed  page  and  at  the 
same  time  gives  adequate  training  in  the  arts  of  spoken  and  written 
speech, 2^3  'p^g  f^j-g^  ideas  of  number  are  best  given  concretely, 
for  thus  the  thought  element  back  of  number  processes  is  developed, 
the  imagination  comes  into  play  and  the  whole  process  is  not 
reduced  to  the  condition  of  a  memory  load.^^^ 

But  it  must  always  be  borne  in  mind  that  drill  is  necessary  in 
the  fundamental  elements.  Whatever  is  to  function  automatically 
in  the  child's  life  should  be  made  automatic  as  soon  as  possible. 
Sins  are  committeed  in  the  name  of  content  when  too  much  time 
is  spent  developing  material  the  full  meaning  of  which  cannot  be 

'''  Dorpfeld,  F.  \V.,  Grundlinien  einer  Theorie  des  Lehrplans,  zundchst  de* 
Volks-und  Mitileschxde.   p.  Si.     Gutersloh,  1873. 

2'»  Shields,  Thomas  E.,  Primary  Heading,  p.  231.  See  also  Huey,  Edmund 
Burke,  The  Psychology  and  Pedagogy  of  Reading.  New  York,  1913.  Meu- 
mann,  Ernst,  Vorlesungungen  zur  Einfiihrung  in  die  Experimentelle  Pedagogik 
und  ihre  Psychologischen  Grundlagen.     Leipsig,   1914,   Band  III,  Das  Lesen. 

2"  McLellan,  James  A.,  and  Dewey  John,  The  Psychology  of  Number,  p,  61. 
New  York,  1895.  Klapper,  Paul,  The  Teaching  of  Arithmetic.  New  York, 
1916,  p.  136.  Smith,  David  Eugene,  The  Teaching  of  Elementary  Mafhe- 
matics,  p.  99.  New  York,  1908.  Meumann,  Ernst,  op  cit  ,  Band  III,  Daa 
Rechnen. 


98      The  Curriculum  of  the  Catholic  Elementary  School 

grasped  by  the  child  at  his  present  mental  stage,  but  which  is 
nevertheless  needed  as  a  tool  of  further  learning.  But  in  the  main, 
the  right  procedure  is  from  content  to  form. 

The  content  side  of  elementary  education  should  then  include 
knowledge  of  God,  of  man  and  of  nature,  or  as  some  prefer  to 
put  it,  man's  Religious,  Humanistic,  broadly  interpreted,  Scientific 
and  Industrial  Inheritance.  The  question  arises,  how  much  of  this 
inheritance  is  to  be  transmitted  in  the  elementary  school.^  The 
answer  is  given  in  part  by  child  psychology.  The  child  mind  is 
interested  in  facts  and  phenomenon ;  fundamental  laws  and  general 
causes,  the  fruit  of  abstraction,  are  as  yet  outside  its  province. 
Toward  these  it  moves  gradually  as  the  educational  process  ad- 
vances. Subjects  like  algebra,  geometry,  physics,  that  are  highly 
abstract,  do  not  seem  to  belong  to  the  elementary  curriculum. 
The  same  is  true  of  foreign  languages;  the  demands  of  the  mother 
tongue  are  sufficiently  exacting  to  consume  all  the  available  time. 
The  curriculum  should  not  contain  all  the  subjects  worth  knowing, 
but  rather  those  things  which  must  be  known  by  all  as  a  minimum 
equipment  for  Christian  life  in  a  democratic  society,  not  every- 
thing which  can  be  crammed  into  a  child's  memory,  but  those 
things  which  will  develop  necessary  interests.^^^  Elementary 
education  is  not  a  fragmentary  affair,  but  it  is  a  vital,  functional 
process  whereby  are  planted  the  seeds  of  that  knowledge  and 
fostered  the  beginnings  of  those  interests  which  are  to  be  developed 
in  later  life,  whether  there  be  higher  schooling  or  not.  In  this 
scheme  of  education,  the  high  school,  the  college  and  the  university 
will  not  offer  anything  that  has  not  already  been  treated  germi- 
nally  in  the  lower  schools.^^^ 

This  problem  can  be  solved  with  greater  definiteness  if  we  con- 
sider it  from  the  standpoint  of  the  child's  reaction  to  subject- 
matter.  It  is  not  such  a  difficult  matter  to  determine  just  what  the 
school  ought  to  do  for  the  child  by  way  of  developing  a  certain 
efficiency  for  life.  Once  we  have  determined  what  differences  in 
conduct  are  essential,  we  have  a  basis  for  selecting  those  elements 

2^^  Shields,  Thomas  E.,  The  Psychology  of  Education,  Correspondence  Course, 
p.  32. 

216  Compayre,  Jules  Gabriel,  Organisation  Pedagogique  et  Legislation  des 
Ecolcs  Primaires,  p.  9.  Paris,   1892. 

In  the  Catholic  Education  Series  of  School  Readers,  published  by  Dr.  Shields, 
Professor  of  Education  at  the  Catholic  University  of  America,  Washington, 
D.  C,  the  subject-matter  is  developed  on  a  basis  of  the  study  of  nature,  of 
man  and  of  God,  and  adapted  to  the  instinctive  inheritance  of  the  child. 


Discussion  of  Psychological  and  Social  Foundations    99 

in  the  Religious,  Humanistic,  Scientific  and  Industrial  Inheritance 
which  should  be  included  in  the  elementary  curriculum. 

According  to  Dr.  Shields'  definition,  the  child  is  to  be  put  in 
possession  of  a  body  of  truth  which  should  tend  to  bring  his  con- 
duct in  conformity  with  Christian  ideals  and  the  standards  of  the 
civilization  of  his  day.  This  constitutes  the  reaction,  or  expres- 
sion side  of  subject-matter.  The  study  of  animal  psychology  in 
recent  years  has  given  rise  to  a  new  school  of  psychologists,  the 
Behaviorists,  who,  discarding  the  traditional  methods  of  intro- 
spection, claim  that  the  mind  can  be  studied  scientifically  only  by 
observing  its  reactions.^^^  They  refuse  to  admit  any  diflFerence 
save  one  of  degree  between  human  and  animal  intelligence  and 
claim  the  right  to  use  the  same  methods  in  studying  both.  Now 
while  Behaviorism  in  its  extreme  form  is  obviously  false,  it  has 
none  the  less  borne  some  good  fruit  in  directing  the  attention  of 
psychologists  to  the  reaction  element  in  mental  processes  which 
serves  as  a  good  means  of  supplementing  and  checking  up  the 
findings  of  introspection.  Of  course,  psychology  has  long  ap- 
preciated the  significance  of  the  sensory-motor  arc  and  the  principle 
*'no  impression  without  expression,"  is  a  commonplace.  A  stimu- 
lus always  occasions  a  response  and  this  is  true  in  the  higher  pro- 
cesses as  well  as  in  the  lower.  In  lower  processes  the  response  is 
motor,  but  there  are  inner  responses  as  well,  such  as  reflection  and 
inner  choice  which  are  examples  of  the  operation  of  the  prin- 
ciple as  well  as  the  former.^^^  The  study  of  responses  is  of  the 
utmost  importance  for  education  since  they  condition  learning. 
The  theory  that  the  learning  mind  is  passive,  a  tabula  rasa  upon 
which  knowledge  is  inscribed,  has  gone  by  the  board  with  a  more 
complete  knowledge  of  the  mental  processes.  Froebel  insisted  on 
the  function  of  self-activity  and  expression  in  education,  though  his 
arguments  were  for  the  most  part  mystical  rather  than  scientific. 
Later  Froebelians,  like  John  Dewey,  with  a  fuller  knowledge  of 
psychology,  have  adopted  the  principle  on  scientific  grounds. 
Today  educators  are  agreed  that  learning  is  an  active  process,  that 
information  like  any  other  stimulus  must  occasion  certain  responses, 
and  that  it  only  becomes  real  knowledge  and  has  permanent  value 
when  the  mind  reacts  to  it  in  the  proper  way.     Any  theory  of 


"^  Watson,  John  B.,  Behavior,  an  Introduction  to  Comparative  Psychology, 
New  York.  1914.  Chap.  I. 
"•  Freeman,  Frank  N.,  How  Children  Learn,  pp.  4.  5. 


100    The  Curriculum  of  the  Catholic  Elementary  School 

education,  such  as  pansophism,  which  considers  only  the  infor- 
mation side  of  subject-matter,  is  faulty.  '*Mere  accumulation  of 
bulk  information  does  not  make  a  mind,  just  as  mere  piling  up  of 
grains  of  sand  does  not  make  a  world. "^^^ 

Now  the  reactions  of  the  mind  to  subject-matter  may  be  summed 
up  in  the  word  conduct.  The  word  has  an  ethical  significance  and 
is  thereby  differentiated  from  behavior,  which  is  action  of  a  deter- 
minate and  unreasoned  quality.  Conduct  implies  reflection  and 
free  choice.  It  is  at  one  time  the  means  and  the  end  of  education. 
It  is  the  aim  of  education  to  develop  a  character  capable  of  noble 
conduct;  on  the  other  hand  the  educative  process  depends  essen- 
tially upon  conduct  for  its  proper  functioning. 

Conduct  may  be  the  manifestation  of  responses  that  are  native 
or  instinctive,  or  of  responses  that  are  the  result  of  experience. 
Education  must  recognize  native  responses.  They  are  the  learner's 
capital  and  to  neglect  them  is  to  sin  against  the  first  canon  of  good 
pedagogy,  adaptation.  Some  native  responses  are  not  socially 
desirable.  These  must  be  inhibited,  transformed,  substituted, 
but  they  cannot  be  disregarded. ^^^  Acquired  responses  are  the 
habits,  skills,  knowledge  and  appreciations  built  up  in  the  course 
of  experience.  Once  acquired  they  are  with  difficulty  changed  or 
rooted  out.  Hence  the  importance  of  proper  selection  at  the 
beginning  and  of  watchful  care  in  development. 

Acquired  responses  may  for  convenience  sake  be  classified  under 
three  heads:  (a)  Knowledge;  (6)  Habits  and  Skills;  (c)  Attitudes, 
Interests  and  Ideals.  The  first  includes  those  elements  in  con- 
duct which  are  intellectual;  the  second,  all  those  responses  that 
are  to  be  mechanized;  the  third,  those  which  are  predominantly 
emotional.  Pervading  them  all  is  the  influence  of  the  will,  which 
is  conditioned  in  its  power  of  choice  by  their  strength  and  quality. 

First  of  all,  knowledge  is  to  be  distinguished  from  mere  informa- 
tion. Only  too  much  education  is  of  a  purely  informational  type. 
We  pick  up  a  course  of  study  and  find  page  upon  page  of  material 
that  is  supposed  to  be  taught  to  children.  We  observe  the  work 
of  the  classroom  and  we  discover  the  children  '* listening"  the  while 
the  teacher  "tells"  them  the  things  that  the  course  calls  for.  We 
look  in  vain  for  the  motivation,  the  judgment  of  relative  values, 
the  ability  to  organize,  the  initiative  and  the  application  of  the 

^^'  Hart,  Joseph  Kinmont,  Democracy  in  Education,  p.  253. 

^2°  Thorndyke,  Edward  L.,  Educational  Psychology,  Briefer  Course,  p.  11. 


Discussion  of  Psychological  and  SocUtl  FoUi1^idoM/.^X.\\ 

information,  on  the  part  of  the  children,  which  are  evidences  that 
learning  is  going  on.221  Instead  of  interest,  there  is  forced  at- 
tention; memory  takes  the  place  of  thought.  The  subject-matter 
lodges  in  the  mind  of  the  child  like  so  much  unassimilated  food. 

But  information,  if  it  is  to  become  knowledge,  must  be  taken 
into  the  mind,  worked  over  and  made  a  real  functioning  element  in 
mental  content.  Response,  not  of  memory  alone,  but  of  judgment 
and  reason  is  demanded.  There  must  be  consciousness  on  the 
part  of  the  pupil  that  the  matter  under  discussion  concerns  him 
vitally,  that  there  is  a  real  problem  to  be  solved  which  demands 
thought  and  initiative  on  his  part. 

The  child's  first  real  knowledge  comes  through  activity,  viz., 
play.  Whatever  may  be  the  ultimate  decision  of  child  psychology 
concerning  the  nature  of  play,  its  educational  significance  needs  no 
further  demonstration.  The  child  gets  his  first  knowledge  of  his 
environment  from  his  play;  incidentally  his  powers  are  developed. 
Of  course  this  knowledge  is  very  elementary  and  immediate  and 
consequently  play  has  its  limitations.  Yet  its  function  should  not 
be  lost  sight  of  in  the  critical  days  when  the  child  turns  to  books 
for  a  knowledge  of  things  that  are  remote  in  space  and  time.  Play 
is  a  necessary  element  in  the  curriculum  of  the  early  grades,  though 
it  can  be  made  good  use  of  all  along  the  way.  Dramatization  may 
do  as  much  for  a  history  lesson  in  the  seventh  grade  as  it  does  for 
reading  in  the  first.  Because  play  and  work  are  but  two  phases  of 
the  same  activity,  the  play  element  enters  largely  into  manual 
training  and  industrial  arts.  It  fosters  emulation  and  lends  an 
unselfish  color  to  competition.  It  affords  motivation  for  drill 
work  and  stimulates  group  study  and  group  spirit.^ 

There  should  be  room  for  other  forms  of  intellectual  expression 
as  well.  Composition,  oral  description,  observation,  verification 
from  extra  text-book  sources,  discussion — all  should  be  encouraged, 
for  they  all  are  means  of  securing  that  response  to  information, 
that  play  of  judgment  and  reason,  which  alone  are  worthy  to  be 
called  knowledge. 

Besides  the  response  to  subject-matter  which  we  have  called 
knowledge,  the  elementary  curriculum  should  foster  those  responses 
which  are  known  as  habits  and  skills.     The  function  of  habit  in 


"^  McMurry,  Frank  M.,  Elementary  School  Standards.     New  York,  1916,  p.  5. 
^^  Freeman,  Frank  N.,  How  Children  Learn,  p.  56. 


I(^    T^  C^^triaulum  of  the  Catholic  Elementary  School 

human  life  is  one  of  economy.  There  are  a  great  number  of 
adjustments  that  the  individual  has  to  make  continually,  day  in 
and  day  out,  to  stimuli  that  are  ever  recurring.  He  would  be 
able  to  get  nowhere  at  all  with  the  ordinary  business  of  living,  if 
each  time  such  stimuli  recurred  he  would  have  to  pause  and  con- 
sider how  he  might  best  react  to  them.  As  a  consequence,  he  gets 
them  out  of  the  focus  of  consciousness  and  renders  his  response  to 
them  automatic  by  the  process  of  habit-formation. 

Now  habits  may  range  all  the  way  from  purely  sensor-motor  reac- 
tion to  reactions  that  include  a  large  conceptual  and  emotional 
content.  The  ordinary  school  arts,  implying  as  they  do  a  large 
measure  of  sensori-motor  activity,  and  over  and  above  this  very 
little  more  than  a  perceptual  element,  are  better  termed  skills  than 
habits.  Here  are  included  the  language  skills,  correct  speech, 
fluent  oral  reading,  rapid,  legible  writing,  accuracy  and  speed  in 
the  fundamental  arithmetical  processes,  and  the  skills  that  are 
essential  in  music,  drawing  and  the  manual  arts.  These  reactions 
are  to  be  made  thoroughly  automatic  and  mechanical  at  the 
earliest  possible  moment.  ^^^  What  we  have  said  above  about 
teaching  form  through  content,  should  not  be  construed  to  mean 
that  skill  in  the  school  arts  is  to  be  acquired  incidentally.  The 
starting  point  should  be  content,  and  content  should  furnish  the 
motivation  for  the  mechanizing  process,  but  this  does  not  prevent 
the  focalizing  of  form  for  purposes  of  drill.  The  context  method 
in  reading  does  not  preclude  drill  in  spelling  and  phonics;  it  only 
maintains  that  the  process  of  learning  to  read  should  begin  with 
the  thought  as  expressed  in  the  word  or  sentence.  This  beginning 
must  be  followed  out  by  a  study  of  the  elements  that  constitute 
the  word  or  sentence.  Drill  on  these  is  necessary,  but  it  is  secon- 
dary and  should  not  constitute  the  first  step  in  the  process. 

Habits  are  higher  skills  and  include  an  intellectual  element. 
They  represent  the  mechanizing  of  an  adjustment  that  is  based 
on  a  judgment.  Though  complex  and  including  elements  of  the 
higher  thought  process,  they  are  none  the  less  truly  habits,  for  they 
represent  a  definite  response  to  a  definite  stimulus  which,  by  dint 
of  repetition,  has  become  unconscious.  There  are  habits  of  right 
thinking,  correct  judgment,  truth,  honor  and  appreciation.  There 
are  habits  of  executive  competence  in  adjusting  means  to  ends. 
Social  habits  there  are,  regulating  one's  intercourse  at  home  and 

223  Bagley,  William  C,  Educational  Values,  p.  137. 


Discussion  of  Psychological  and  Social  Foundations  103 

abroad.  The  affections  likewise  need  to  be  leashed  to  the  good  and 
noble  by  habit's  bond.  Habits  of  valuation  should  be  built  up  to 
safeguard  the  individual  against  the  appeal  of  the  mean  and 
sordid.  Habits  of  methodical  procedure  in  study  will  be  of  the 
greatest  utiHty  in  the  life  of  any  individual. 

It  is  particularly  at  the  present  time  that  insistence  on  habit- 
formation  is  in  order.  We  are  living  in  a  period  of  change,  a 
period  that  is  swayed  by  opinion  much  as  was  the  age  of  the 
Sophists  in  ancient  Greece.  A  new  order  is  in  process  of  becoming, 
and  there  is  a  tendency  abroad  to  be  impatient  with  things  static 
and  to  crave  for  the  dynamic.  We  are  liable  to  forget  that  there 
must  be  something  permanent  in  all  motion.  A  recent  writer  is 
only  voicing  the  spirit  of  the  age  when  he  says,  '*The  child 
should  be  taught  not  to  conform,  but  to  experiment. *'224 

But  our  zeal  to  foster  power  of  independent  thought  should  not 
blind  us  to  the  fact  that  many  a  problem  has  been  definitely 
settled  in  the  past  and  that  any  solution  we  may  hope  to  find  will 
only  serve  to  corroborate  accepted  conclusions.  While  it  is 
important  that  children  be  taught  to  think,  it  is  quite  as  im- 
portant that  they  be  taught  to  obey.  If  the  experience  of  the 
past  has  discovered  that  there  are  certain  correct  ways  of  doing 
things,  it  is  idle  waste  of  time  to  set  children  at  work  discovering 
these  things  anew.  Credo  ut  intelligam,  said  St.  Augiietine,  and 
the  maxim  applies  well  in  the  present  connection.  After  all, 
habits  are  not  the  absolute  and  irrefragable  things  that  some 
modern  thinkers  would  have  us  believe.  They  do  not  absolutely 
predestine  us  to  one  type  of  action.  They  may  incline  the  indi- 
vidual toward  one  alternative  rather  than  another,  but  they  leave 
the  will  free.  They  simply  make  it  easier  for  us  to  do  a  certain 
thing  that  we  have  to  do  frequently.  A  man  need  not  necessarily 
become  a  slave  of  his  habits.  Strong  and  well-formed  habits  do 
not  destroy  initiative  and  originality;  rather  they  save  initiative 
from  becoming  vain  wilfulness  and  originality  from  dwindling 
into  mere  queerness. 

To  the  habit  reactions  belongs  memory.  The  function  of 
memory  in  life  is  one  of  conservation;  through  its  medium,  expe- 
rience, racial  as  well  as  personal,  is  made  to  function  in  daily  life. 
Important  events  in  our  own  lives  are  recalled  without  great  effort, 

"<  Coe,  George  Albert,  A  Social  Theory  of  Religious  Education.  New  York, 
1917,  p.  32. 


104    The  Curriculum  of  the  Catholic  Elementary  School 

but  to  recall  things  that  we  have  learned,  that  do  not  come  into 
our  own  personal  history,  requires  studied  effort.  Definite  asso- 
ciations must  be  formed  that  will  enable  us  to  hold  our  knowledge 
in  readiness  for  use.  In  other  words  these  associations  must  be 
made  automatic  and  habitual. 

Possibly  no  single  mental  power  has  met  with  greater  abuse  in 
the  schools  than  memory.  This  abuse  has  come  from  two  sources. 
There  are  those  who  regard  the  **training  of  the  memory"  as  the 
main  concern  of  education  and  insist  upon  storing  the  mind  with 
all  sorts  of  detail  and  demanding  memorization  in  every  branch. 
They  underrate  the  higher  thought  processes  and  consider  a 
thing  known  because  it  can  be  verbally  reproduced.  Over  and 
against  the  devotees  of  this  practice  are  aligned  such  as  despise 
memory  entirely  and  claim  that  if  a  subject  is  understood,  it  will 
be  remembered. 

Manifestly,  both  are  wrong.  While  crimes  have  been  com- 
mitted in  its  name,  memorizing  is  none  the  less  necessary  in  the 
process  of  learning.  Merely  to  understand  something  does  not 
insure  its  retention.  A  thing  must  be  forgotten  a  number  of  times 
before  it  will  be  remembered.  But  on  the  other  hand,  rote  memory 
has  its  very  obvious  limitations;  it  is  a  low  form  of  habit-formation 
and  its  function  is  always  a  ministering  one.  It  lacks  sureness  and 
is  subject  to  the  uncertain  conditions  of  the  physiological  concomi- 
tants of  mental  activity.  Logical  memory  is  more  lasting  and 
more  educative.  There  should  be  an  understanding  of  the  matter 
before  it  is  committed  to  memory  for  thus  definite  associations 
will  be  formed  that  will  make  for  efficient  recall.  Subjects  like 
religion,  history,  geography,  etc.,  that  are  predominantly  of  a 
content  nature,  should  not  be  blindly  conned  by  rote,  but  should 
be  so  developed  as  to  be  adequately  understood.  After  such 
development  comes  organization  and  then  comes  the  role  of  mem- 
ory to  fix  the  chief  points  of  the  organized  knowledge.  When 
memory  is  utilized  in  this  manner  it  will  fulfill  its  appointed  task. 
If  it  is  simply  loaded  down  w^ith  verbal  knowledge  it  becomes  a 
hindrance  to  effective  thinking  and  fails  to  contribute  to  proper 
character-formation . 

The  emotional  responses  may  be  listed  as  attitudes,  interests 
and  ideals.  Attitudes  are  sometimes  classed  with  habits,  for  they 
are  habits  of  feeling,  but  for  the  sake  of  emphasis,  we  prefer  to 
consider  them  from  the  point  of  view  of  their  emotional  content 


Discussion  of  Psychological  and  ^Social  Foundations  105 

rather  than  in  their  character  of  mechanized  reactions  Attitudes 
are  personal;  they  are  born  of  the  pleasure  or  displeasure  which  an 
object,  situation  or  event  produces  in  the  individual  mind.  This  in 
turn  is  the  result  of  past  experience.  If  in  the  life  of  an  individual 
a  th^ng  has  always  been  associated  with  the  unpleasant,  his  atti- 
tude toward  it  is  bound  to  be  unfavorable;  if  on  the  other  hand, 
it  has  always  been  attended  with  happy  results,  he  will  come  to 
look  upon  it  with  favor. 

The  school  must  aid  the  child  in  developing  proper  attitudes. 
It  is  vain,  for  example,  to  teach  the  child  many  things  about  the 
duties  of  a  citizen,  unless  the  child  is  at  the  same  time  brought  to 
feel  the  necessity  of  maintaining  the  ideals  of  good  citizenship.  A 
child  may  be  able  to  pass  a  very  creditable  examination  on  the 
nature  of  Christian  virtue,  but  unless  he  comes  to  feel  in  his  own 
inmost  soul  the  value  of  Christian  virtue,  his  knowledge  will 
prove  empty  indeed.  In  other  words,  the  school  must  cultivate  a 
sense  of  values.  This  it  can  do  by  making  explicit  the  good  that 
flows  from  nobility  of  conduct,  the  evil  that  results  from  wrong- 
doing, the  bitterness  that  is  the  wages  of  sin.  Attitudes  should 
likewise  be  cultivated  toward  science,  literature,  art  and  industry. 
The  child  should  be  taught  to  appreciate  the  role  of  scientific 
achievement  in  daily  life,  the  canons  that  govern  things  literary 
and  artistic,  the  necessity  of  social  cooperation,  the  dignity  of 
labor  and  its  social  value.  Above  all  he  should  come  to  feel  most 
strongly,  the  importance  of  religion  and  the  futility  of  life  without 
its  inspiring  influence. 

Closely  bound  up  with  attitudes  are  interests.  On  the  one  hand 
interest  is  a  necessary  condition  for  real  learning.  It  makes 
po  sible  the  avoidance  of  that  division  of  attention  and  energy 
which  are  the  result  of  forced  attention. ^^^ 

On  the  other  hand,  interest  is  the  end  of  education,  in  the  sense 
that  the  school  must  develop  permanent  interests,  needs  or  desires 
that  will  last  through  life.     A  man's  life  is  governed  largely  by 


^*  A  task  need  not  be  easy  because  it  is  interesting.  The  effort  put  forth 
by  the  inventor  is  none  the  less  strenuous  because  it  is  compelled  by  absorbing 
interest.  In  the  school  a  task  may  be  extremely  difficult  and  may  require  the 
help  of  forced  attention  to  be  properly  inaugurated.  But  once  begun,  real 
interest,  intrinsic  and  not  borrowed  from  external  sources,  should  be  aroused, 
and  then  no  matter  what  the  difficulty  of  the  subject  or  the  effort  required, 
the  child  will  find  the  task  pleasant.  The  reason  is  that  there  is  a  personal 
motive;  the  child  feels  that  the  things  he  is  doing  answer  bis  own  personal 
needs. 


106    The  Curriculum  of  the  Catholic  Elementary  School 

the  things  that  he  wants,  and  the  school  must  bring  him  to  want 
things  that  are  healthy  and  worth  while.  By  means  of  interest  he 
should  be  brought  to  hunger  for  those  things  in  life  which  will  best 
contribute  to  his  own  happiness  and  the  welfare  of  those  with 
whom  he  must  live.^^e 

The  third  type  of  emotional  reaction  we  shall  consider  is  the 
ideal.  It  is  not  a  simple  matter  to  define  an  ideal.  It  contains 
a  cognitive  element;  it  is  the  condensation  or  summing  up  of 
experience;  it  is  a  kind  of  generalization  of  what  the  race  artd  the 
individual  have  found  to  be  noble,  true  and  conducive  to  the  best 
interests  of  humanity.  An  ideal  once  grasped  and  understood 
colors  the  entire  mental  outlook.  It  enters  into  every  judgment 
and  dictates  every  course  of  action. 

But  an  ideal  is  more  than  just  a  principle  consciously  held  and 
adhered  to.  Its  distinguishing  characteristic  is  its  emotional 
content.  Ideals  function  powerfully  in  men's  lives  because  they 
are  felt.  A  man  may  assent  to  an  intellectual  proposition  and  at 
the  same  time  disregard  it  in  his  active  life.  But  when  the  pro- 
position gathers  unto  it  a  large  element  of  feeling  it  becomes  a 
source  of  power  and  motive.  It  becomes  personal,  permeates  all 
thinking,  judging  and  acting.  Precisely  on  this  account  ideals 
are  the  dominant  things  in  life.  They  rule  the  destinies  of  nations 
as  well  as  individuals.  Very  much  depends  on  their  quality  and 
effectiveness,  for  a  man  will  be  no  better  than  the  ideals  he  cherishes. 

Because  ideals  are  predominantly  emotional  they  are  not  the 
fruit  of  mere  preaching.  They  must  grow  out  of  personal  exper- 
ience. Paraphrasing  Thomas  a  Kempis,  it  is  far  better  to  feel  the 
urge  of  an  ideal  than  to  be  able  to  define  one.  Vain  effort  is 
expended  in  having  children  write  lofty  themes  on  such  subjects 
as  honor,  justice  and  patriotism,  unless  they  have  first  come  to  feel 
within  themselves  the  meaning  and  greatness  of  these  concepts. 
*'Art,  literature,  (including  poetry,  the  drama  and  fiction),  music 
and  religion,  are  the  great  media  for  the  transmission  of  ideals  and  as 
such  fulfill  an  educative  function  far  more  fundamental  than  our 
didactic  pedagogy  has  ever  reahzed."^^^  We  would  amend  this 
statement  by  placing  religion  in  the  first  place  as  the  mightiest 
instrument  for  the  creation  of  ideals,  from  which  all  other  media 
derive  their  virtue.     Nor  may  we  forget  the  necessity  of  a  strong 

226  Dewey,  John,  Interest  and  Effort  in  Education.     Boston,  1913. 

227  Bagley,  William  C,  The  Educative  Process,  p.  224. 


Discussion  of  Psychological  and  Social  Foundations  107 

ideal  equipment  on  the  part  of  the  teacher,  which  will  render  her 
sensitive  to  the  ideal  implications  of  subject-matter  on  the  one 
hand,  and  on  the  other  serve  to  compel  the  children  to  recognize 
her  as  a  model,  a  living  lesson  in  ideals,  and  to  be  fired  as  a  con- 
sequence, to  imitate  and  emulate  her. 

Behind  all  of  the  cognitive  and  emotional  elements  of  conduct  is 
the  will,  the  power  of  choice,  the  great  directive  force  of  human 
life.  It  is  the  ultimate  basis  of  character.  But  the  will  is  a 
**blind  faculty;'*  while  it  directs  the  intellect  by  focusing  attention 
now  here,  now  there,  it  in  turn  depends  upon  the  intellect  for 
light  and  it  is  influenced  by  the  emotions.  There  are  those  who 
would  train  the  will  directly  by  means  of  effort,  hard  work,  forced 
attention.  But  they  forget  that  it  is  possible  to  develop  a  certain 
obstinacy  of  will,  or  wilfulness,  that  is  not  conducive  to  ethical 
conduct.  The  doctrine  of  the  freedom  of  the  will  does  not  deny 
that  there  are  conditions  prerequisite  to  a  free  act.  Catholic  ethics 
lists  ignorance  and  passion  among  the  obstacles  to  a  free  human 
act.  The  mind  must  be  brought  captive  to  the  True  and  the  heart 
to  the  Good,  that  the  will  may  not  be  impeded  in  its  choice,  but 
may  enjoy  that  liberty  which  is  its  birthright.  In  the  light  of 
adequate  knowledge  as  a  basis  of  choice,  and  with  the  emotions 
disciplined  and  brought  to  heel,  the  will  may  be  more  effectively 
inured  to  the  difficulty  of  choosing  the  right  rather  than  the  expe- 
dient, the  dutiful  rather  than  the  comfortable,  which  will  always 
demand  effort  on  the  part  of  fallen  man.^^^ 

Yet,  granted  that  the  aim  of  Christian  education  is  to  transmit 
to  the  child  knowledge  of  God,  of  man  and  of  nature,  and  to  foster 
the  proper  intellectual,  habitual  and  emotional  reactions  to  this 
knowledge,  we  still  lack  a  definite  norm  for  determining  the 
limits  of  the  elementary  curriculum.  Accordingly  we  turn  to  the 
external  or  social  factors  that  control  conduct  in  daily  life.  For 
conduct  is  not  something  isolated;  it  does  not  function  in  a  vacuum. 
Character  must  reveal  itself  in  the  midst  of  real,  tangible  circum- 
stances. It  remains  for  us  then  to  consider  the  social  controls  of 
conduct,  the  terra  '^social*'  being  here  used  in  a  broad  sense  as 


22S  Even  with  all  due  insistence  on  the  acquisition  of  knowledge,  the  building 
up  of  habits  and  the  development  of  attitudes,  interests  and  ideals,  there  will 
be  plenty  of  opportunity  in  the  course  of  an  ordinary  school  day,  for  training  in 
obedience,  which  is,  as  we  have  seen,  the  very  root  of  culture.  And  this  train- 
ing will  be  the  more  effective  for  the  fact  that  reason  and  ideals  can  be  appealed 
,  o  and  the  appeal  appreciated. 


108    The  Curriculum  of  the  Catholic  Elementary  School 

signifying  those  things  which  affect  society  and  which  society  must 
take  cognizance  of.  Conduct  from  this  point  of  view  may  be 
termed  social  efficiency. 

In  the  first  place,  the  child  must  become  efficient  in  his  religious 
life.  The  end  of  man  is  union  with  God,  and  Catholic  Education 
would  surely  prove  a  sorry  failure  if  it  fitted  him  to  gain  the  whole 
world,  yet  suffered  him  to  lose  his  soul.  Consequently  of  primary 
importance  is  that  knowledge,  those  habits,  attitudes,  interest  and 
ideals  which  constitute  a  man  a  good  Catholic.  The  child  must 
be  trained  to  all  the  ordinary  duties  of  Catholic  living,  such  as 
attendance  at  Sunday  Mass,  frequentation  of  the  Sacraments,  daily 
prayers,  respect  for  the  laws  of  the  Church,  appreciation  of  the 
major  devotions,  especially  that  to  the  Blessed  Sacrament  and  the 
Blessea  Virgin.  Over  and  above  this,  there  should  be  loyalty  to 
the  Church,  showing  itself  in  loyalty  to  the  parish,  which  is  the 
child's  point  of  contact  with  the  Church. ^^^  There  should  be 
interest  in  all  that  concerns  the  Church  whether  at  home  or 
abroad,  love  of  the  Holy  See,  zeal  for  Catholic  Missions,  apprecia- 
tion of  Catholic  social  and  educational  activities.  In  a  word,  the 
child  must  become  an  efficient  Catholic,  thinking,  and  feeling  and 
judging  with  the  Church  and  striving  ever  to  approximate  her  ideals 
of  living. 

But  being  an  efficient  Catholic  calls  for  efficiency  outside  the 
hallowed  sanctum  of  religion.  The  love  of  God  demands  love  of 
neighbor  and  right-ordered  love  of  self.  "Thou  shalt  love  thy 
neighbor  as  thyself."  Religious  training  that  has  not  been  supple- 
mented by  moral  training,  easily  degenerates  into  cant  and  hypo- 
crisy. ^^^  The  reason  is  that,  true  religion  is  not  a  thing  by  itself,  a 
matter  of  sentiment  or  devotion,  but  it  is  as  broad  as  life  and  enters 
into  all  of  life's  relations.  First  of  all,  the  individual  must  be 
morally  efficient.  The  tendency  outside  the  Church  is  to  con- 
found the  moral  with  the  social.  That  is  moral  which  increases  the 
sum  total  of  group  happiness;  that  is  immoral  which  contributes 
to  group  woe.  2^^  The  good  of  society  is  the  ultimate  norm  of 
morality.     This  is  Utilitarianism,  and  it  is  false  because  an  act  is 

229  Shields,  Thomas  E.,  "Standardization  of  Catholic  Colleges."  The 
Catholic  Educational  Review,  Vol.  XII,  No.  3,  p.  200. 

2*0  Herbart,  John  Frederick,  Outlines  of  Educational  Doctrine,  Lange- 
DeGarmo  Translation,  p.  14. 

231  Bobbitt,  Franklin,  The  Curriculum,  p.  165.  Dewey  says,  "The  Moral 
and  Social  quality  of  conduct  are,  in  the  last  analysis  identical  with  each 
other."     Democracy  and  Education,  p.  415. 


Discussion  of  Psychological  and  Social  Foundations  109 

morally  good  when  it  is  directed  by  Reason  to  the  ultimate  Good 
of  man,  and  that  ultimate  Good  is  not  the  welfare  of  society,  but 
the  Infinite  Good  which  alone  can  satisfy  the  cravings  of  man*s 
highest  appetite,  his  will. 2^2  The  happiness  of  society  is  a  subsidi- 
ary end,  though  a  necessary  one,  and  each  individual  is  bound 
to  promote  it  to  the  best  of  his  abilities.  Moral  efficiency  means 
directing  one's  life  in  conformity  with  the  will  of  God  for  the  pur- 
pose of  saving  one's  soul.  "Christianity,  while  acting  as  the 
great  socializing  agency,  has  never  lost  sight  of  the  individual  or  his 
claims.  In  her  teaching  each  individual  has  an  immortal  soul 
which  must  be  saved  and  which  must  discharge  its  duties  toward 
God  and  fellow-man.  In  the  discharge  of  these  personal  duties, 
the  individual  needs  the  help  that  education  is  designed  to  give,  and 
while  he  is  bound  to  love  his  neighbor,  this  love  of  neighbor  does 
not  blot  out  his  personal  claim  to  life,  liberty  and  happiness  here, 
and  to  eternal  well-being  hereafter."^^^ 

The  individual  should  likewise  be  efficient  in  the  care  of  his 
body.  The  promotion  of  physical  well-being  is  today  considered 
part  of  the  school's  function  and  rightly  so.  Mens  sana  in  cor- 
pore  sanoy  is  the  old  adage  and  its  truth  needs  no  demonstration. 
Service  of  God  and  neighbor  will  be  the  more  effective,  given 
health.  Moral  action  depends  on  two  elements,  knowledge, 
habits  and  ideals,  whence  spring  strong  motives,  and  strong  inhi- 
bitions that  restrain  evil  tendencies.  Now  in  any  state  of  con- 
sciousness there  is  the  focus  and  the  margin.  The  focal  idea  is 
that  to  which  attention  is  being  paid  at  the  time  being;  but  at  the 
same  time  there  are  ideas,  sensations,  emotions  on  the  margin,  of 
which  the  subject  may  be  aware,  but  to  which  he  is  not  giving  his 
direct  attention.  The  more  ideas  that  a  man  may  hold  in  marginal 
consciousness,  the  more  capable  he  is  of  seeing  a  multitude  of 
relations  and  as  a  consequence,  the  better  able  he  is  of  forming  an 
adequate  judgment.  Now  when  a  man's  vitality  is  low  his  mar- 
ginal life  is  narrowed  and  he  is  not  able  to  hold  as  many  things  in 
mind  at  once.  Concentrated  attention  becomes  well-nigh  impos- 
sible and  judgment  is  difficult.  As  a  consequence  he  will  be  prone 
to  give  himself  over  to  the  easy  control  of  instinct  and  impulse 
and  to  shirk  the  effort  of  acting  according  to  his  ideals.  At  the 
same  time,  the  inhibitions  that  he  has  built  up  in  the  course  of  his 

«  Cronin,  Michael,  The  Science  of  Ethics.     New  York,  1909.  Vol.  I,  p.  308. 
»» Shields,  Thomas  E.,  Philosophy  of  Education,  p.  242. 


110    The  Curriculum  of  the  Catholic  Elementary  School 

experience,  will  tend  to  break  down.  He  does  not  see  the  conse- 
quences of  his  act  in  marginal  consciousness  and  his  soul  becomes 
an  easy  prey  to  evil.  The  physical  organism  instead  of  an  ally 
has  become  an  obstacle  to  the  mind.^^^ 

The  school  should  reveal  to  the  child  the  secret  of  keeping  alive 
and  well.  It  should  impart  to  him  information  about  such 
material  things  as  food,  clothing  and  shelter,  and  the  means  of 
producing,  distributing  and  utilizing  the  same.  Here  are  sug- 
gested correlations  with  industrial  and  domestic  arts.  Informa- 
tion should  likewise  be  given  concerning  the  care  of  the  body, 
the  avoidance  of  fatigue  and  the  manner  of  keeping  up  the  bodily 
tone.  All  of  this  goes  under  hygiene.  But,  says  Bobbitt,  "  Good 
physical  training  can  result  but  from  one  thing,  namely,  right 
living.  .  .  Learning  the  facts  from  books  will  not  accomplish 
it;  nor  good  recitations;  nor  good  marks  on  examinations.  Nothing 
will  serve  but  right  living  twenty-four  hours  in  the  day,  seven  days 
in  the  week  and  all  the  weeks  of  the  year."^^^  There  must  be 
plenty  of  room  in  the  curriculum  for  activities  that  will  serve  to 
put  into  practice  things  that  have  been  learned  from  books  and 
teachers.  This  means  physical  exercises  in  the  classroom,  but 
especially  organized  work  in  the  play-ground.  It  means  likewise 
watchfulness  as  to  cleanly  habits  and  care  to  detect  evidences  of 
malnutrition  when  they  appear.  There  should  also  be  respect  for 
the  findings  of  modern  medical  science  and  the  inculcation  of  the 
proper  attitude  toward  such  things  as  vaccination  and  quarantine. 
Care  in  this  will  contribute  to  more  efficient  conduct  in  every 
department  of  human  life. 

But  conduct  must  also  be  controlled  by  man's  social  relations. 
The  love  of  God  implies  love  of  Neighbor.  "If  any  man  say,  I 
love  God,  and  hateth  his  brother;  he  is  a  liar.  For  he  that  loveth 
not  his  brother  whom  he  seeth,  how  can  he  love  God  whom  he 
seeth  not.?^  And  this  is  the  commandment  we  have  from  God, 
that  he,  who  loveth  God,  love  also  his  brother.  "^^^  Democracy 
demands  cooperation."  The  individual  must  recognize  the  neces- 
sity of  thinking,  feeling  and  acting  in  harmony  with  the  group,  and 
of  sacrificing  his  own  personal  interests  when  they  run  counter  to 
the  welfare  of  the  group.     Secular  education  would  achieve  this 


234  Bobbitt,  Franklin,  The  Curriculum,  p.  174. 

235  Ibid,  p.  181. 

236  I  of  St.  John,  IV,  20,  21. 


Discussion  of  Psychological  and  Social  Foundations  111 

ideal  by  appealing  to  natural,  temporal  motives,  by  impressing 
upon  the  individual  the  importance  of  society,  and  by  attempting 
to  convince  him  that  the  good  of  society  is  the  end  of  his  existence. 
But  these  motives  are  bound  to  prove  futile  in  a  crisis.  Expe- 
rience shows  the  individual  that  it  is  quite  possible  for  him  to  be 
happy  and  comfortable,  even  when  all  is  not  well  with  society,  and 
on  the  other  hand  to  be  quite  miserable  in  the  midst  of  seemingly 
ideal  social  conditions.  Hence,  when  there  is  question  of  his  own 
selfish  interest,  which  is  always  a  tangible  thing,  as  against  the 
rather  intangible  welfare  of  the  group,  the  former  will  in  all  likeli- 
hood prevail.  Public  opinion  may  serve  to  deter  men  from  the 
grosser  exhibitions  of  selfishness,  but  it  does  not  reach  down  into 
the  seclusion  of  private  life.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  public  opinion 
sometimes  puts  a  premium  on  self-interest,  as  for  example,  when 
it  pays  homage  to  Success,  which  in  only  too  many  cases  is  ability 
to  overreach  and  circumvent  one's  neighbor.  Christian  charity 
is  the  only  genuine  social  efiiciency.  It  keeps  the  individual 
mindful  of  the  fact  that  we  are  all  children  of  a  common  Father. 
It  teaches  him  to  identify  his  brother,  who  may  not  always  be  very 
lovable,  with  Jesus  Christ,  Who  is  all-lovable.  The  poor  man 
must  see  Christ  in  the  wealthy  capitalist  who  dazzles  him  with  the 
magnificence  of  his  living.  The  rich  man  must  see  Christ  in  the 
beggar  who  grovels  at  his  door.  The  machine  operative  must  see 
Christ  in  the  foreman  who  is  harsh  and  exacting.  The  foreman 
must  see  Christ  in  the  operative  who  tends  to  shirk  and  be  careless. 
The  brother  must  see  Christ  in  the  sistei  who  is  vain,  frivolous  and 
selfish.  The  sister  must  see  Christ  in  the  brother  who  is  rude, 
sullen  and  unsympathetic.  For  "as  long  as  you  did  it  to  one  of 
these  my  least  brethren,  you  did  it  to  me." 

But  we  cannot  expect  that  Religion  will  work  itself  out  in  social 
life  in  some  sort  of  automatic  fashion.  Its  social  equivalents  must 
be  made  explicit.  The  child  must  be  taught  to  apply  the  Truths 
of  Holy  Faith  to  the  circumstances  of  his  daily  life.  He  should 
come  to  realize  the  social  significance  of  the  Ten  Commandments. 
The  chapter  in  the  Catechism  on  the  Virtues  should  be  learned  in 
such  a  way  that  it  will  function  in  daily  social  intercourse,  and  not 
amount  to  a  mere  series  of  verbal  definitions.  The  so-called 
natural  or  acquired  virtues  should  be  insisted  upon,  not  by  mere 
preaching  but  by  affording  plenty  of  opportunity  in  the  class- 
room for  their  cultivation;  for  virtues  are  habits  and  as  such  are 
subject  to  all  the  laws  of  habit-formation.     Above  all  there  should 


112    The  Curriculum  of  the  Catholic  Elementary  School 

be  cultivated  a  personal  devotion  to  Our  Blessed  Lord,  a  real 
Friendship  with  Him,  for  this  is  the  foundation  of  true  social 
efficiency. 

Social  efficiency  demands  economic  or  occupational  efficiency. 
This  feature  has  been  treated  sufficiently  above  in  Chapter  III. 
The  occupational  element  in  the  elementary  curriculum  should  be 
broad  and  general;  vocational  education  in  the  narrow  sense  of  the 
word  is  a  matter  for  the  secondary  school.  The  aim  should  be 
to  imbue  every  child  with  ideals  of  self-support,  to  teach  him  the 
place  and  function  of  industry  in  modern  life,  to  lead  him  to  an 
appreciation  of  the  dignity  of  labor  and  his  own  dependence  thereon 
and  to  build  up  such  manual  skill  and  dexterity  as  will  stand  him 
in  good  stead  regardless  of  his  future  position  in  life. 

The  socially  efficient  man  is  likewise  a  good  citizen  of  the  State. 
Patriotism,  or  love  of  country,  has  always  been  a  cardinal  point  in 
Catholic  teaching,  for  it  is  directly  implied  in  the  love  and  service 
of  God.  The  State  is  one  of  the  means  destined  by  God  Himself, 
to  aid  man  in  working  out  his  eternal  destiny.  It  answers  an 
inborn  need  of  man,  for  man  must  associate  if  he  would  live. 
The  true  Christian  sees  in  the  laws  of  the  State  an  evidence  of  the 
will  of  God  and  he  obeys  them  accordingly. 

Hence  it  is  the  office  of  the  Catholic  School  to  foster  civic  effi- 
ciency. This  calls  for  knowledge  of  the  nature  and  constitution  of 
the  State  and  the  duties  of  a  good  citizen.  It  also  demands  the 
development  of  civic  virtue,  that  faith  and  trust  and  love  of  fellow- 
man  which  make  for  security  and  solidarity,  that  disinterestedness 
and  readiness  to  serve  the  public  good  which  make  for  coopera- 
tion, that  obedience  which  lends  power  to  the  law.  Training  for 
citizenship  is  no  longer  considered  merely  a  matter  of  studying  the 
Constitution  and  the  workings  of  the  machinery  of  government. 
Its  aim  is  to  aid  the  child  to  understand  the  nature  of  his  own 
community,  whether  it  be  the  home,  the  Church,  the  school,  the 
city,  the  state  or  the  nation,  for  to  all  these  groups  he  owes  alle- 
giance. Likewise  he  must  understand  and  appreciate  the  need 
and  function  of  government  as  the  organized  sovereign  will  of  the 
group.  Finally,  habits  of  civic  action  must  be  cultivated.  These 
refer  not  only  to  the  state  but  to  the  home,  the  neighborhood,  the 
community,  the  school  and  the  parish.  Among  the  topics  that 
might  come  under  training  for  civic  efficiency,  are  Health,  Protec- 
tion of  Life  and  Property,  Recreation,  Education,  Civic  Beauty, 
Wealth,   Communication,  Transportation,   Migration,   Charities, 


Discussion  of  Psychological  and  Social  Foundations  113 

Correction,  Government  Agencies,  Voluntary  Agencies.  Of 
course,  all  of  this  will  not  be  accomplished  in  the  class  in  Civics,  but 
the  civic  implications  of  the  other  branches  must  be  brought  out. 
Religion,  Geography,  History,  Nature  Study,  Industrial  Arts, 
even  Arithmetic  are  rich  in  civic  elements. ^^^ 

Finally,  there  must  be  adequate  preparation  for  conduct  in  time 
of  leisure.  With  the  development  of  machinery  and  labor-saving 
devices,  working  hours  are  becoming  shorter  and  the  average  man 
has  more  time  to  himself.  It  is  this  leisure  time  that  is  fraught 
with  the  greatest  peril ;  during  it  a  man  saves  or  loses  his  soul. 

Now  the  occupations  of  leisure  are  manifold;  they  are  physical, 
intellectual,  social  and  aesthetic.  They  include  conversation, 
observation  of  men  and  things,  hobbies,  sport,  games,  reading, 
travel,  music,  painting,  study — whatever  is  done  with  no  other 
end  in  view  save  personal  pleasure  and  delight.  Leisure  is  the 
play  of  man. 2^^ 

Practically  every  element  in  the  curriculum  should  contribute  to 
the  proper  use  of  leisure.  But  those  studies  are  of  particular 
importance,  which  develop  taste.  Literature,  music,  draw- 
ing, play  an  important  role  in  this  connection.  A  child  who 
has  been  taught  to  love  the  best  in  books,  whose  soul  has  been 
attuned  to  the  noblest  in  music,  who  can  appreciate  the  harmony 
of  line,  tone,  color  and  massing  and  knows  from  experience  the 
difficulty  of  technical  execution,  will  hardly  turn  for  enjoyment  to 
the  crude,  the  low  and  the  salacious.  But  in  teaching  subjects  like 
music,  it  must  be  remembered  that  the  prime  purpose  for  the 
majority  of  children  is  enjoyment.  Too  great  an  insistence  on  the 
mere  technical  elements  will  defeat  the  purpose  of  the  instruction. 
Here  again  the  process  is  from  content  to  form.  Knowledge 
about  the  art  is  likewise  important.  The  children  should  derive 
an  interest  in  the  history  of  music;  they  should  be  taught  something 
of  the  evolution  of  musical  instruments;  they  should  know  some- 
thing of  the  lives  of  composers  and  of  the  greater  forms  of  musical 
composition,  such  as  the  oratorio,  the  symphony  and  the  o|)era. 
All  of  these  things  will  carry  over  into  later  life  and  will  afford 
sources  of  noble  enjoyment  in  the  hours  when  the  day's  toil  is 


"'  Dunn,  Arthur  W.,  "Civic  Education  in  Elementary  Schools  as  Illustrated 
in  Indianapolis,"  United  States  Bureau  of  Education  Bulletin,  1915,  No.  17. 

"«  Bobbitt,  Franklin,  The  Curriculum,  p.  207. 

"•  Aronovici,  Carol,  "Organized  Leisure  as  a  Factor  in  Conservation." 
The  American  Journal  of  Sociology,  Vol.  XXIV,  No.  4,  p.  373. 


CONCLUSION 

The  foregoing  discussion  suggests  certain  working  principles 
which  should  govern  the  making  of  a  curriculum  for  the  Catholic 
elementary  school  in  the  United  States. 

I.  The  nature  of  democratic  society  demands  that  the  elemen- 
tary school  should  provide  the  same  general,  fundamental  edu- 
cation for  all  the  children  of  all  the  people.  Only  thus  can  that 
sense  of  interdependence  and  need  for  cooperation  which  is  essen- 
tial to  a  democracy  be  developed  and  fostered. 

II.  The  elementary  curriculum  should  include  all  those  things 
which  are  essential  to  democratic  living.  Its  function  is  to  pre- 
pare the  child  for  effective  participation  in  the  affairs  of  life,  whe- 
ther he  goes  on  to  a  higher  school  or  not.  Hence  it  should  present 
such  information  concerning  God,  man  and  nature,  and  cultivate 
such  knowledge,  build  up  such  habits,  foster  such  attitudes, 
interests  and  ideals,  as  will  enable  the  child  at  the  completion  of 
his  course  to  take  his  place  in  life,  a  thorough  Catholic  and  an 
efficient  member  of  society,  truly  Christian  in  his  own  indivudal 
character,  able  to  maintain  himself  economically,  realizing  his 
duties  as  a  good  citizen,  prepared  to  make  the  proper  use  of  the 
goods  of  life. 

III.  In  order  to  effect  this  end,  the  elementary  curriculum  must 
make  adequate  provision  for  training  in  the  use  of  the  tools  of 
education,  the  languages  and  mathematical  arts.  But  these  should 
not  constitute  the  end  of  elementary  education.  Rather  they 
should  be  made  to  subserve  the  higher  interests  of  content  and  they 
will  be  best  acquired  through  the  interest  and  motivation  that 
content  affords. 

IV.  That  the  various  branches  of  the  curriculum  may  best  serve 
the  ends  for  which  they  are  destined,  they  should  be  effectively 
correlated.  The  unity  of  the  mind  and  the  nature  of  knowledge 
as  well  as  the  interests  of  economy  of  time  and  effort  demand  this.^'*" 

2^°  This  last  point  opens  up  another  great  question  that  needs  to  be  scien- 
tifically examined.  In  the  secular  schools,  various  attempts  have  been  made 
at  correlation,  some  of  them  more  or  less  successful.  The  difficulty,  however, 
has  always  been  to  discover  a  natural  core,  or  center,  around  which  the  various 
branches  could  be  grouped.  That  difficulty  is  largely  obviated  in  the  Catholic 
curriculum,  for  we  possess  the  element  of  synthesis  in  religion.  How  well 
religion  serves  for  the  organizing  of  knowledge  can  be  seen  in  the  education  of 
the  Middle  Ages,  whose  unity  no  other  system  has  even  approximated.  Re- 
ligion is  the  basis  of  human  life,  and  consequently  of  human  knowledge.  Just 
as  its  disappearance  from  social  life  results  in  lawlessness,  so  its  rejection  from 
the  realm  of  knowledge  means  intellectual  anarchy. 

114 


Discussion  of  Psychological  and  Social  Foundations  115 

In  conclusion  it  is  well  to  remind  ourselves  of  the  circumstances  of 
the  moment  in  which  we  are  living.  The  old  order  is  changing 
and  what  the  ultimate  result  of  this  change  may  be,  no  man  can  say. 
Perhaps  never  has  the  world  been  in  greater  need  of  the  guidance  of 
Christian  principles.  Forces  are  abroad  that  know  not  Christ  and 
they  seek  to  overthrow  all  the  institutions  that  civilization  has 
built  up,  that  they  may  thereby  eradicate  the  evils  that  pervade 
our  social  structure.  So  keen  are  they  for  destruction  that  they 
forget  entirely  to  provide  anything  constructive. 

But  on  the  other  hand,  the  social  evils  of  the  day  are  palpable  and 
cry  aloud  for  remedy.  This  remedy  can  only  come  from  the  up- 
rooting of  the  selfishness  that  has  caused  the  ills,  and  the  sub- 
stituting of  Christian  charity.  Cooperation  must  take  the  place 
of  unrestricted  competition ;  faith  and  trust  must  supplant  mutual 
fear  and  jealousy.  All  parties  in  the  struggle  must  learn  to 
cherish  the  common  good  above  their  own  selfish  interests. 

The  Catholic  Church  alone  in  all  the  world  today  possesses  the 
secret  of  true  social  regeneration.  It  is  the  duty  of  her  children 
to  put  it  into  practice.  The  starting-point  is  the  school  where  a 
new  generation  is  being  prepared  for  the  struggle  ahead.  The 
function  of  the  Catholic  school  should  be  understood  in  the  full 
light  of  the  Church's  mission.  It  is  not  merely  a  preparation  for 
higher  education,  but  a  preparation  for  Christian  living.  It  must 
prepare  the  pupil  to  further  the  cause  of  Christ  in  the  work-shop, 
the  council-chamber,  the  office,  the  store,  as  well  as  in  the  sanctu- 
ary. While  we  need  good  priests,  we  also  need  an  intelligent  laity 
who  by  their  lives  and  deeds  will  carry  the  sacerdotal  message  into 
the  mazes  of  every-day  life.  There  are  diversities  of  gifts  and 
diversities  of  vocations.  All  must  be  fostered  for  all  are  intended 
"for  the  perfecting  of  the  saints,  for  the  work  of  the  ministry,  for 
the  building  up  of  the  Body  of  Christ." 


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VITA 

The  writer  of  tliis  dissertation,  the  Rev.  George  Johnson, 
was  born  in  Toledo,  Ohio,  February  22,  1889.  He  attended 
the  parochial  schools  of  that  city  and  made  his  high  school 
and  college  courses  at  St.  John's  University,  Toledo,  Ohio, 
where  he  received  the  degree  of  Bachelor  of  Arts,  in  1910,  and 
Master  of  Arts,  in  1912.  In  September,  1910,  he  entered 
St.  Bernard's  Seminary,  Rochester,  New  York,  and  in  1912 
entered  the  American  College,  Rome.  He  was  ordained  to 
the  priesthood  at  Rome,  June  5,  1914.  From  1914  to  191G, 
while  acting  as  secretary  to  the  Rt.  Rev.  Joseph  Schrembs, 
D.D.,  Bishop  of  Toledo,  he  taught  classes  in  Religion  and 
Church  History  at  the  Ursuline  Academy  and  the  Cathedral 
High  School,  Toledo,  Ohio.  From  1916  to  1919,  he  pursued 
studies  at  the  Catholic  University  of  America,  Washington, 
D.  C.  He  followed  courses  in  Education  under  Dr.  Shields, 
Dr.  McCormick  and  Father  McVey;  in  Psycholog}%  under  Dr. 
Moore;  in  Sociology,  under  Dr.  Kerby;  in  Biology,  under  Dr. 
Parker;  in  Philosophy,  under  Dr.  Turner;  in  Social  Psychol- 
ogy and  Methods  of  Teaching  Religion,  under  Dr.  Pace.  Dur- 
ing the  summer  of  1918,  he  made  studies  at  Teachers'  College, 
Columbia  University. 

The  writer  welcomes  this  opportunity  to  express  his  deep 
sense  of  gratitude  to  Dr.  Shields,  whose  inspiration  and  guid- 
ance made  this  work  possible ;  to  Dr.  McCormick  for  valuable 
aid  and  suggestions  in  correction  and  revision,  and  to  the  Rev. 
John  F.  Fenlon,  S.S.,  D.D.,  for  continual  interest  and  frequent 
friendly  counsel  throughout  three  years  of  residence  at  Cald- 
well Hall.  To  the  Rt.  Rev.  Joseph  Schrembs,  D.D.,  Bishop  of 
Toledo,  he  is  particularly  indebted  for  the  special  opportuni- 
ties and  advantages  of  which  this  work  is  the  culmination. 


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ri.  fil!H"tiiyjiii.,ii»»l!||pf 

5  cents  ^' first  d^  overdue    Vt^  - 

nts.bn  'f o.  1  r >h  lay  QYfi|?f*P^^' 
Hollai  i)u  ,u>cnth  day  overdue 


NOV     4  1947     20!Vpr'56RE       i 
APR19195BL 


f^AY24 


ii>4S 


le^ov 


55:'C 


Ltt 


woi  1 1  ^oui 


6May'56Pl 

REC'D  LD 

MAR  13  ism 


25WaV'63^<^ 


LD 


IMnj4lii)lH2,'46(A2012sl6)4xdMAT    1  7  1963 


YC  04479 


"C- BERKELEY LIBR/iBiEs 


/ 


UNIVERSiry  OF  CAUFORNIA  UBRARY 


